I find it incredibly sad that people actually say to expect to work more hours, take your job home with you, work on weekends and late into the night outside of the normal hours you were hired for. If you think that's an ideal job, you are one sad person. There are fewer and fewer jobs that don't require that and everyone should be fighting the assumption that's how a job should be. It's not. You go in, you work, you leave. There are jobs that aren't so cut and dry but too many employers expect you to be at their beck and call and could give a shit about your own needs to take time off work. Fuck that kind of responsibility.
Yeah, I'm a few years older than the OP, don't have the sort of 'grown-up' lifestyle that he wants, and shudder at the thought of ever living like that. I think that there's something in modern American culture, perhaps shaped by its pervasive consumerism (something that really kicked into full swing in the early 20th century), that seems to prize playing it safe and having a lot of stuff.
What about travel, or further education, art, immersing yourself in another culture or cultures, stretching your own physical and emotional boundaries, exploring? Frankly, today's zombie consumerist culture really does kinda scare me at times.
