Being a kid is similar to being a parent in that someone else usually dictates and/or influences many of the decisions you make . As a child, you answer to your parents and abide by their rules. As a parent, your spouse and kids exert a major influence on your choices. Either way, your flexibility is limited, as other people in your life play a chief role in your overall lifestyle. Things are markedly different in our late teens/early 20s, however, as we transition into young adulthood. For most people, the college years are the only time in our lives where we're responsible for -- and answer to -- no one but ourselves. I don't look back on my childhood fondly. My parents got divorced when I was only 3, and my father was extremely overprotective of me. Having to go from one house to another each week was not fun in the slightest. Middle school and high school were largely forgettable. College, on the other hand, afforded me the opportunity to reinvent myself. I reli...

If you could relive any phase of your life, what would it be? For me, it would be my college years, hands down, and many of my friends, relatives, and co-workers echo that very sentiment. And it's not because I miss drunken fraternity parties or on-campus events. For starters, I don't drink and I was never in a fraternity. Because I was a commuter student, I never actually lived on campus and thus didn't have the quintessential college experience. Still, I loved college because the academic atmosphere suited me. I always excelled in school (thanks largely to my mom, who instilled in me a passion for learning) and felt completely in my element. Even though I got a part-time job during my junior year, I still considered school my top priority. Indeed, I was one those reviled nerds who enjoyed reading voraciously and writing papers. One of the best aspects of college -- it's probably the one I miss the most -- was the flexibility it afforded me. When you're i...

Today's quote comes from Dr. Seuss of all people: "Sometimes you will never know the value of something until it becomes a memory." - Dr. Seuss I couldn't agree more with this quote. I'm sure most of us would concur that our youth is the perfect example of something we tend not to appreciate until later, when we can no longer relive those years. I often think about how zealous I was to graduate from college and go out into the real world. While there's a lot to be said about attaining financial security as a working professional, I don't see myself ever being able to recapture the magic of my college years. It's really a unique, transformative time in one's life -- your first taste of freedom, the first time in your life where you actually feel like and are regarded as an adult. I feel my years before college were largely forgettable, and life in corporate America (post-college) is essentially like reverting back to high school, where o...

Which of these do you find to be more intense: the pressure to get married or to have kids? I find it to be the latter. For one, I've observed that couples are having kids out of wedlock at an unprecedented rate, and society no longer frowns upon this like before. Decades ago, it was assumed that everyone "grew up" and joined the ranks of adulthood in a decidedly linear fashion: fall in love, get married, have kids. While some people still follow this pattern, others aren't. In fact, I know at least 10 people -- friends and relatives alike -- who had kids before tying the knot. So long as they eventually get married, society seems to give these people a free pass. That's not the case with couples who put off having kids or decide not to have any at all. Perhaps the reason for this is that people figure that while you can get married anytime you want -- even in your 90s -- women have a limited time window within which they can have kids. So once they reac...