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"I find it tremendously hard to believe you're 26."

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I actually don't have trouble believing that.

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Remember what I was like for a while? A self-righteous little bitch, sure I had everything figured out and was intellectually superior to everyone around me? I was a bit younger than him then (24 and 25 rather than 26) but not that far off.

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In my case, it was an act - an attempt to create a perfect online persona that would make up for my (what I saw as) my complete incompetence and uselessness in real life. An arrogant shell covering an interior completely devoid of self-esteem.

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I'm beginning to suspect that it's a stage some people go through in their mid-20s. I went through it right before I finally understood that there's no such thing as a finished adult, and that everyone keeps on growing and changing throughout their entire life. I'd been trying to show that I'd attained a complete, final level of understanding, and I've seen =A= make much the same claim about himself.

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I think it's just another bump in the road to self-awareness.

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*hands over 2 cents and steps away from the soapbox*