Cultural Criticisms

This Essay is my nemesis.
Seriously. I have been brainstorming on this for so long and I've got nothing.
Let's take a moment to quote Stan Sollars, a man who day by day is becoming more and more of a hero to me.
"Somedays you get the bear. Somedays the bear gets you, but if it's one of those days where he's gonna get you, damn if you're not gonna take a peice of the sonuvabitch down with you."

He's so poignant.
So this is me taking a peice of the sonuvabitch down with me.

The only somewhat half decent idea I've had about this essay is my beef with the pressure our culture puts on recent college graduates, because I've seen so many of my friends fall victim to it, and suffer because of it.
But whatever could I mean?
What I mean is this.
Sherman came home two weekends ago and we started to talk about all of our friends who are getting married for the wrong reasons. Yes, there are a few that are going about it correctly and they will more than likely do very well (Tiffany! Jason!). But it really bothers me that I don't have enough fingers to count the number of couples who have gotten hitched but I have more than enough fingers to count the number of months that they've known eachother. It seems like they are succumbing to the unstated pressure of graduating college and the necessity for choosing some 'direction' towards something solid.
I'm all about impulse, but really, this is a life long commitment, or atleast it should be. This is a right that people are fighting for, gay america wants to get married too, and all of us straight folk are just sitting around abusing the privelage. Not many people seem to be taking the institution of marraige seriously anymore. It's not 'til death do us part' any more, its 'til we get sick of eachother and then we take advantage of the prenup.'
Come on.
Why can't we be more like geese? (I'll expand on this later).
Besides getting married, it seems like college graduates have a very limited number of options presented to them after they take off the cap and gown.
THE THREE GOOD OPTIONS
1. get a good job (good luck)
2. go to grad school (oooh yay, more loans!)
3. get married.

These three options give us some esteem from our elders to that they have something to brag about in the yearly christmas letter update that they send to relatives who only show up at weddings and funerals.

THE NOT SO COOL OPTIONS
1. Move back home to get an 'alright' job to save money to move somewhere else later, when really we all know you'll stay there.
2. Stay in your college town with your college job until you're either
a) a townie
b) you move somewhere else

These are the options where your parents sugar coat your actions and make it sound like you're being alot more accomplished than you are.
I know these letters, we get them every year.

I'd say that there's a token 1% of achievers out there who actually just GO and DO what they really want to. They're the ones who everyone else goes to visit and live vicariously through.

I find it strange that so many people my age were so eager to go out and explore and conquer when we were 18 and 19, but by the time that we're 22 and getting diplomas we get scared and rarely follow through with the dreams that we just spent alot of time, energy, and money chasing. The way I look at it, if you've spent the past four or five years hitting the books and studying a feild of work that you really want to get involved in, why not go for the gold?
Why do we feel this pressure? Why must our lives be chosen in our early twenties. Will someone please remind my generation that the odds are not in the favor of doing what you do in your first job forever?
Chasing what you really want isn't necessarilly going to be easy, you will more than likely have to start at the bottom of the totem pole and work your way up again, but the pay off of all of that hardwork I guarantee is 100% more satisfying than other options.
I think we're all just chicken shits.