I couldn't wait to turn 21 (approximately 100 years ago). It was going to be a game-changer. Being able to go to any bar whenever I wanted? Come on. The best.
And so when I — and my friends — started turning 21, we would hit the bars! And close them down! And drink our faces off! And do it again the next day! And not be able to hear each other talk! And look at girls, but not talk to them! Fun!
And you know what we stopped doing? Hanging out in dorm rooms, or in backyards, in smaller groups, laughing it up, breaking into impromptu games of Zonk (it involved five dice and a bong), ordering Domino's, drinking a few beers, and actually having fun.
Ain't that just life, though? You think the thing you don't have is more fun than the thing you do have, and when you eventually get the thing you don't have you end up being a little — or a lot — wistful for the thing you used to have. Or, as Jerry Garcia put it (those Zonk memories are flooding back ), “the grass ain't greener, the wine ain't sweeter, on either side of the hill.”