Young vs Young Single Adults

Just a newsflash: I found some shoes! And they're not pink! Rejoice with me!

And now for something completely different...

I was thinking about different things as I drove home this evening. I thought about my sister and her boyfriend (yes, they are back together... Hooray!), and about my family, and about a bunch of different things that could be another post all in themselves. But one thing I started thinking about as reached home was the interesting way my church groups people.

When you are an infant, you generally stick with your parents. Once you reach 1 & 1/2 though, you go to Nursery until you are three. Then you are in Primary until you turn twelve. After Primary, depending on your sex, you either go to Young Men or Young Women's. Once you reach eighteen, however, you are thrown into that interesting mix called the Young Single Adults, at least until you get married or turn 30.

Now, Young Single Adults have no official divisions but in my observations, I have seen there are some unofficial, but truly real breaks, or at least there are if you are in Northern Utah. You see, there are Young Single Adults (YSA), and then there are Young Single Adults (ySA), Middling Young Single Adults (MYSA), and Old Young Single Adults (OYSO). YSAs are just that group of single people from ages 18 to 30. The ySAs on the other hand are young, usually those people from 18 to 22 or 23. These are by far the most common, at least in my area. The OYSOs range in age from 26 or 27 to 30. The MYSAs are usually between the ages of 22 to 26 or 27. It's kind of difficult, because it seems to me that the YSA activities, at least in my area, target the ySAs, which leaves us MYSAs and OYSAs no choice but to do one of three things:

1. Move
2. Join a singles ward
3. Get married

Getting married is the most difficult of the three because typically once you are a MYSA you fall into what my friend calls "The Dating Black Hole," wherein you don't date at all, mainly because you are too old for the ySA returned missionaries and too young for the Single Adults who are over 30. This is rather depressing indeed since I fall into this category. It's not a fun place to be.

Moving is not always an option, but if you do, usually joining a singles ward comes attached to this. I could do this, but I hate feeling like I am fresh meat, even if I am not really all that fresh of meat. Therefore, the only choice is to stay in my family ward for the time being, where I am not a young Single Adult and not a Single Adult. I've heard that elsewhere this is not the case, that it's normal if you are 25 and still single. But here in the Top 'O Utah, it seems that if you are 25 and still single, something is very wrong with you.

At any rate, dear readers, I'm sorry this is such a depressing post this evening. I was just thinking about it, and with it came all the frustration and annoyance of not being that old, and yet being perceived as old. I'm not really depressed about it, just frustrated. Anyways, rejoice, I have new shoes, and now I will have dry feet. (If you sing it to this hymn it sounds pretty good, if I say so myself.)