24 Random Things To Talk About When You’re 24

1. Rent is due Friday, I need your check. Yea, just slip it under my door.

***

2. I was out on Friday with a college roommate who I hadn’t really seen in a few years (a thing that now happens.) Two years ago, we all thought he was gonna be the first of our friends to get married. But he and his girlfriend ended up breaking things off, and his trajectory is now a bit different than we all thought it’d be.

3. He was sitting at the bar on J-Swipe, which is basically Jewish Tinder. Clearly having a great time, clearly not harping on anything except the Spectacular Now. The moment was incredibly inconsequential, which is why it hit home. I’d known this guy for years, but I’d never seen this version.

***

4. Dude, that’s not the full amount. With the new lease it’s $100 more.

5. No, you were definitely on the email. It was — yea fine, I’ll pull it up now.

***

6. Having not seen him in so long, his life seemed very Ship of Theseus; your life is defined by a bunch of things, which slowly get replaced over time. Eventually, you’re on a ship made of completely different parts.

***

7. Alright, here it is:

Hey roomie mara’s,

Ed (our really awesome, super helpful landlord) has decided that since we’re hapless 24 year-olds perpetually at his mercy, the rent is gonna go up an extra three hundo for the next year’s lease. Doing the math, this is an extra $100 bill maher’s per person.

I’m guessing we’re all staying on since both of you guys have said “I’m staying on,” so the rent will be $950 each starting November 1st.

Also, I have an extra ticket to the Say Anything concert next Friday. Hoping to lock up a Hinge date by then, but doubt that’ll happen so let me know if you’re in.

-Lance

***

8. Later that night, I bumped into an old friend from high school.

9. Alright, we didn’t really “bump in” each other. It was somewhat planned. I was down in DC for the weekend, made a Facebook status about it, and she just so happened to be in the same neighborhood.

10. I doubt we would’ve seen each other if not for the “same neighborhood” thing, just because the older you get the less willing you are to go out of your way to go across town for a drink. This is definitely a good thing.

***

11. I know! I just kind of threw it out there expecting nothing, and she was like ‘omg I LOVE Say Anything! Walk Through Hell practically got me through high school!’

12. No…she never texted back…

***

13. We proceeded to catch up. In many senses, this should’ve just been one of those conversations where we just say vague things about our career situations and somewhat lie to one another about how “awesome” everything sounds.

14. In many ways, it was that exactly. But it also represented something new in our friendship; this was a different situation than the one we were accustomed to (playing apples to apples in a basement). This clearly was new beat to our story — whether that story continues, no one really knows.

***

15. Well I was burping a lot, but she seemed to understand when I said it was just a result of my Friday afternoon tradition of eating 30 wings and four plates of waffle fries. 

16. I mean I hinted at it, but…she just kept saying how she had to get up early for work. Which was weird because it was a Friday night. But she said two different times that “content never takes a day off.”

***

17. Eventually, another old friend from high school showed up — at this point, we had established some sort of mini-reunion. He showed up with his buddy from high school, who was also visiting for the weekend.

18. I got to talking with the friend of my friend, who I never really connected with in high school. (We ran in different circles, seemed to be going different ways, and never gave elaborate hi-fives to each other in the hallway.) We ended up having a pretty great conversation, and I very quickly realized that judging someone by their high school selves seven years after high school is like still acting as if dippin’ dots is the ice cream of the future.

***

19. I googled some of the stuff she’s written, didn’t totally get it. A lot of articles about being in your 20s. References to Parks and Rec. The last one she wrote kept talking about being “basic.”

20. I mean when stuff like that comes up on my Facebook I’ll click on it. Half the time I regret clicking, but I get it. People need distractions to get them through the day, and just want to feel connected to something. 

21. Though she did say the key was to “slowly drain people of their willpower.”

***

22. My college friends and I departed from my high school friends, and left bar at a little after 11 pm. This was the weekend of our college homecoming, so theoretically we were supposed to go crazy. Especially since this was really the last year we knew people on campus, and were allowed to go to homecoming without being weird.

23. The next day we went back onto campus. It didn’t really feel weird. It was clear that while this was clearly a part of us, it had less and less to do with our current selves. We were clearly removed; our Ships of Theseus hadn’t had Natty light on their decks for awhile. Now, they were stocked with frozen vegetables.

 ***

24. I didn’t forget about the rent check, by the way. I’m 24. 70% of my thoughts revolve around the rent check.