When you were a freshman in college, what did you think your life would be like ten years later? Did you expect to have an amazing career? Did you anticipate a family in the suburbs? Did you think you would be living the dream? For Ryan Tatarunas, life at twenty-nine is more like a nightmare. Poor, hopeless, and eclipsed by the success of his best friend, Jahangir Jahalawan, Ryan doesn't think it can get any worse. Then he loses his job.With pain, poignancy, and humor, Before I'm Thirty examines unemployment and the meaning of adulthood from the perspective of a twenty-nine year old with a master's degree and a universe of thwarted potential. After five years of disappointment and defeat in Washington DC, Ryan realizes that he has to move on with his life. The decisions he makes reflect the reality of unemployment and the delusion that it can conjure, as Ryan strives for something better in a world that doesn't spin in his direction.An ode to the jilted dreams of the Millennial Generation, Before I'm Thirty is for anyone who still believes it can happen, and everyone who saw the Great Recession impale their future on the spire of a Wall Street skyscraper.