I don't know why everyone makes such a fuss about puberty. Puberty was a joke compared to this. The melodrama, the angst and the acne were nothing compared to my transition from young-adult, to I-can't-deny-it-any-longer adult. Don't get me wrong, my early years had their problems, but those problems were shared among my school friends and teachers. We were a team. Or else, at the very least, we were a community all united in our pursuit of love and education. Then we graduated and it's as if we were pushed off the side of a cliff and landed on the moon. You go from seeing your friends everyday at school, to seeing your friends all move away and move on with their lives. No more late-night conversations, no more last minute hang-outs, no more sharing the burden of this complicated thing called life. All of a sudden, you go from daily pursuing something that interests you, whether it was literature, philosophy or politics, to the drudgery of real life. Gone are the secret-deep-down dreams of one day achieving something extraordinary. Your loneliness and low-paying job prevent you from dreaming big. All of a sudden your friends are you co-workers, that is, if you are lucky enough to have anything beyond geographical space in common. Yes my fellow quarter-lifers, becoming an adult is among the most difficult periods of life. It was with a leaden heart that I realized that this was it. This was really and truly it. Without drastic measures I would never again have what I had as a student: the daily dose of friendship and laughter that made life that much more worth while. So I hit the internet, determined to meetup.com and craigslist.com myself a new social life. I made the effort. I went on friend-dates and sat sipping coffee and making small talk with total strangers trying to find that spark of familiarity. Things always went smoothly but left me unsatisfied. After a number of such experiences I began to wonder what it is that makes meaningful friendship so difficult in adulthood. I realized that the spark of familiarity can only come with time, and time is something we no longer have as adults. Our younger selves shared precious time with our friends every day in and around school activities. We had time to grow together and develop the kind of friendship that can only exist between people who know each other on a deeper more fundamental level. Sadly, I've come to realize that there is no remedy. One must either sink or swim; either fall into despair or adapt to this new and unfamiliar reality.