A Bloom of the Cistern

1

Now, we all know what a child, teenager, and adult are. These are well-defined stages of development, with their own sub-stages — biologically speaking, anyway. But what exactly is a "Young Adult"? Why is there a need to distinguish between a so-called "Young" adult and a regular one? What are the characteristics that set the two apart? Do they even exist in the first place? Is it a phrase that actually means something, or simply an invented marketing demographic?

Your guess is as good as mine, so for our mutual edification, let us examine the life of a young woman who ostensibly fits into this category. There is nothing exemplary or noteworthy about her. She's the sort of girl we all know or have at least met in passing; perfectly normal, average, and boring in every way. She happens to be an agent of a dystopian police state, but that does nothing to detract from her overall normalcy. We'll now begin following her life, already in progress.

We're now in the bedroom of a small apartment. There's our subject, sitting on the bed in a pink bathrobe. Her height, build, and weight are average. She has brown hair and brown eyes. There's nothing particularly striking or noteworthy about any aspect of her appearance. Currently, she appears to be in the middle of a conversation on the phone. Let's listen in.

"Well, you know, it's like..."

"Yeah..."

"Yeah."

"Yeah!"

"Exactly! That's what I told him!"

"I know, right?"

"Alright, well I've gotta go, see you next Tuesday. Bye."

I have no idea what that was about, but it could have been important.  Hearing one side of the tail end of a conversation isn't particularly conducive to understanding anything about it, I suppose. Now she's removing the robe, turning the lights off, and getting into bed. Looks like we caught her at the end of the day. Oh well. Let's take a look around her room, maybe there's something interesting or informative here.

Let's see... a couple of band posters on the walls, some framed photos (probably friends or family), dressers with shelves full of various clothes, a closet full of shoes and coats, a couple of handbags with the sorts of contents one might typically expect to find in a handbag, some prescription bottles with no labels, a bong, a hairbrush, and several Young Adult novels by John Green and Stephanie Meyer.

No, nothing interesting or informative here at all. We'll check in again later.