What's my age again?

"Nobody likes you when you're twenty-three"

Those words ring in my mind and bring to the forefront a harsh truth. Yes it took Blink-182 to remind me that my teenage years have long passed, and I have to grow up and be an adult. I guess when I was 18 or so I believed that by now I would be in a well-paid job with a house to call my own, living a 'grown-up' life. But in reality, thanks to the on-going housing boom, that vision of maturity can wait just a little bit longer. In addition, I have still not got a job because I choose to stay in uni another year to become ' employable'. And it hits me - have I even grown up at all? Have I even got anywhere since those hazy days where everything in theory just seemed so simple?

Maybe my 23rd birthday has made me drastically think about things which I may have overlooked before. Each year which passes by is a ticking timebomb to Thirtyland; a place where I seriously don't want to be in my current jobless and houseless situation. Seven years perhaps a doddle you say, but its not that easy when house prices are so high it means I may not even get to live in Cardiff's newest 'leafy' suburb Barry, yet alone my hometown. And have I got the maturity to actually achieve such a feat? It may give me a thrill of delight to look at houses in the estate agent's window, but to enter the door just gives me thoughts of sheer fright and panic. The main thing is not to panic I know, and I guess I have to bite the bullet just like everyone else. But it wasn't long ago I was listening to punk bands such as The Offspring and Blink-182, thinking about simple things like relationships and having a blast, now all of a sudden it feels a million miles away, in a time long and forgotten, as if these songs were mere nursery rhymes.