Graduating. It seems to be the only thing my friends and family are asking about these days, and the response ‘I don’t know what I’m doing’ wore thin months ago.

Maybe that’s why I decided to move to L.A., just to have an answer to that question for myself and the people who worry about me. It’s definitely not my most intelligent decision, and to be honest I expected to hear a lot of negative comments about the plan: Tour the country, settle in L.A., ‘ find a job? It’s not very concrete. In fact, it’s one of the most whimsical things I’ve done ‘ and I never have real plans for anything.

So I was shocked when I got nothing but positive feedback from my parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, friends, etc. It seems everyone wants to move somewhere far away to discover life somewhere other than upstate New York. It’s an exciting idea, living somewhere completely idealized by people of the East Coast. So why don’t more people move away and explore the country?

It seems to me that what people are worried about is doing the right thing: get a job, save a lot of money, beef up that resume, be responsible. The idea of pushing ahead to a life-long career and stability is all the more alluring in our recent economic recession.

The mainstream ideal of our generation is to have a stable life, one in which we don’t have to worry about making huge mistakes and losing everything. We are cynical and we believe that life is out to get us, so we have to work as hard as we can to place our feet firmly on the ground.

Passed is the time when jumping in a car and heading west was a crazy, but fun thing to do. Now it just seems crazy.

But if we don’t do that kind of thing now, when will we ever be able to do it? I definitely don’t want to be middle-aged and wishing I’d experienced the rush that comes with the fear of doing something absolutely crazy.

So I guess what I’m saying is, let’s live youthfully now that we’re finally out of our parents’ houses and have some kind of degree, because once we settle down with a job and family, we may never get this chance to make really terrible mistakes again.

Oh, and have a back-up plan. I know that I have an amazing family willing to fly me back to New York and take me in if I just really can’t cut it in L.A. Without that fail-safe, there’s no way I’d even consider the current plan.

And if you don’t have a great back-up plan, after your own great adventure falls through, you can always find your way to California to live with me and 20 other youthful dreamers in a one-bedroom apartment as we struggle to pay the rent and buy groceries. Hopefully I’ll still be smiling by the time you get there.