Trying to change gear

Do you ever feel that you never really left your angst years behind? Or maybe that you forgot about them for a few blissful years of freedom only for them to return stealthily in the night somewhere between your graduation ceremony and the day you recieved your first job application rejection?

I for one am convinced that the twenties are the new teens. I know, I know, it's not really a new idea; it's one that only dawned on me whilst listening to the Friends theme tune after not hearing it since my teens. Back then (in the late 1990s) I worshiped at the altar of Phoebe, Joey and co. and wished fervently from my damp bedroom in the south of England that I could share their glamorous lives and anxieties. My friends and I would sing the theme tune at break time- "so no-one told you life was gonna be this way, your job's a joke, you're broke, your love life's DOA" and then choose which of the Friends guys we would like to snog.

Now those lyrics resonate all too much and, ironically, I aspire to a simpler, more adolescent angst instead of this twentysomething monster horrible version.

Instead of worrying about not having the right brand of school shoes I'm now kept awake at night by such weighty issues as, When will I stop comparing myself with my peers? Develop a proper career plan? Pay off my overdraft? Decide which country to live in? Stop being afraid of shop assistants? Decide what to do about my love life? Stop reading gossip magazines and start reading proper newspapers?

Oh god, just writing all this makes me feel depressed. Right I'm off to comfort eat some Nutella and listen to a bit of "why me?" music. At least some things never change.