By Will

It’s 9.30 in the morning, and I’m sitting down to a greasy breakfast near London’s borough market. I’m on a health kick and I’m supposed to be avoiding foods that can set up camp in my ventricles, but the smell of bacon from the café has sweet talked me into sitting down and ordering a full english. I’ve just picked my friend Paul up from the airport cause he’s visiting me for the weekend. We start catching up over coffee and London rain.

By Daniel

Putting his beer down, my mentor changed his tone to something a little more serious.

“Corporate loves guys like you; young, ambitious, driven, and…. impressionable. They pull you in and place the whole world on front of you. You don’t realize this yet, but it becomes a shackle, a sort of ball and chain”

He brought his hands up to my neckline and closed an imaginary shackle around my throat. I looked down and envisioned an iron chain that connected to a small cannon ball on the floor.

“As time goes on they throw in some nice promotions, pay increases, bonuses. You feel good and you want more. So they give it to you. Soon, you’re married and have kids so you need to throw that into the mix as well. You have obligations, responsibility and it begins to weigh heavy on your shoulders. You don’t notice it at first, but your ball…

By Trina

I have always and will always love stories of sweeping, epic romance. As a child I was captivated by such stories mainly in the form of movies (from the Little Mermaid to the Thorn Birds). The over-arching theme was always attractive couples with a spark that never died. I dedicate a good portion of my free time to examining that everlasting spark by watching romantic comedies and fantasizing about romances. In fact, last Saturday night was an intensive night of research in the form of watching Bridget Jones’s Diary and Notting Hill (a dual-themed night: rom coms and London…pretty wild night). If my hours of study have taught me anything, it is that relationships are rarely “perfect” or “fairytale” but rather bipolar in nature. Love’s manic highs and crushing lows have given me a reality check on romance and caused me to hurt my brain thinking about it.

By Will

I was in my little grocery store the other day doing what I usually do - cruising the aisles looking for my Reese’s Cups when really I should have been knocking stuff off my shopping list. I found my Reese’s by the way - awesome. I chucked a left down to the sauces section looking for some mustard. Saw the mustard, sidled over and scanned the shelf - dijon, Grey Poupon, French’s Yellow Mustard, Colman’s Mustard (the shizzle!), wholegrain, honey, spicy, brown. I spent a good 5 minutes deciding which one I wanted. I actually picked up jars and looked at them - at one stage I compared two jars. For what? Colour intensity or something? I don’t know why I stood there comparing mustard. It occurred to me afterwards it’s because I had so much choice.

By Trina

In college, I was really busy, pushed myself extremely hard, had a social life and always had a spring in my step. In a typical day (even with minimal caffeine), I could workout, go to several classes, put in a few hours of work and read for lecture the next day. On the weekends, I would frequent the downtown Iowa City watering holes, and I might have enjoyed the occasional 6 AM tailgate. That was then… These days (even with enough caffeine to kill a small animal) I seem to get really tired after doing less, walk a little slower and carry more weight on my shoulders. It is almost as if one year of working has aged me greatly. Maybe it is a combination of working, stress and paying bills all while trying to look fabulous or perhaps it is just adulthood. Has adulthood killed my spark? 24 hit hard, and I’m a little afraid of 25. I just feel…old.