The Interstitial Years

I had a coffee a number of weeks ago with a dear friend of mine. We were roommates together, have been through extremely challenging ordeals together, and are trying to brave through-our twenty somethings together and with grace. On this particular occasion, we were talking about transitions, and then he used the word 'intersitial'. My friend is incredibly bright, and so I let on that I already knew what this extraordinarily spiffy word meant.

in * ter * sti * tial

adjective

1. Ecology (of minute animals) living in the spaces between individual sand grains in the soil or aquatic sediments.

or

2. A twenty something; a person living in-between the spaces of adolescence and adulthood.

or

3. A person fluctuating between purpose in life, employment, and/or apartment housing in the 5 boroughs of NYC.

When I say the word ' interstitial' I guess what sticks out to me is the 'stitch' part; the needle and thread of two very separate experiences? I thought that a human being only had to endure one awkward stage, but apparently there are many. The one when you're thirteen years old and overdeveloped in all the wrong places, the twenties when it feels like you're underdeveloped in all the wrong places, and then your eighties when you have to wear pampers again. I'm sure there are many more in between...I'm trying to acquire a taste for wanting to discover them.