stunted? maybe not

adam and i were presented with the rare opportunity of going out to see a movie last friday.

in an actual theater. without cartoon characters. at night. alone.

i know, i was a little confused, too, but apparently this is how a large portion of the world enjoys their films. i'm used to catching them about a year after all the hype from my living room couch. which isn't all bad, but i welcomed the change of pace.

so after scanning what was playing at the local movie theater, we both quickly agreed that nick and nora's infinite playlist was most our speed. so off we went, grabbed seats with plenty of time to mock the horrible pre-screening ads and trivia, and sat back to spend an uninterrupted hour and a half in the dark together.

on the ride home, we engaged in our typical post-movie debriefing (two thumbs up in case you were wondering) and i asked adam if he thinks there's something wrong with me that i seem to relate best to this type of movie about teenagers. we saw a preview that night for a movie about two friends planning their weddings... the exact type of movie geared toward my age group. i had zero interest. those sorts of relationships and scenarios just don't pique my interest. i was starting to think that maybe there's something in my social skills that got retarded somewhere along the way. had i missed something crucial to maturing fully?

the more i thought about it, i decided that these kinds of movies strike a nerve with me because they feel truthful. once you get a few years into the "real world," people expect you to conform. you have to pretend to be interested in things that bore you, you have to be continuously polite to people you think are idiots, you have to feign interest in topics you could care less about. and sure, we had to do some of that as teenagers, too, but at least we got to do it while sporting that indignant you-don't-understand-me attitude and a pair of chuck taylors.

i wish that we could spend more time pursuing our interests and less worrying about being productive during every waking hour. responsible, sure. that's a no-brainer in my book. but once you've put in your 40 hours at the office, taken care of the needs of your family, and made sure you're not living in a biohazard - we need to remember to have some fucking fun once in awhile.

and most importantly, i think everyone needs to remember what it was like to be seventeen, still figuring out who we were and what was important to us... because that process shouldn't stop when we find a career and settle down. its something we should be working on for the rest of our lives, because we aren't finished yet - we're a work in progress and should always be.