It seems that with growing older comes the growth of conversation. It evolves from when you were three and the main topics were things you like to eat and games you play to weather and politics. It's these jumps from one solid area of small talk to another that made me realize I must be in between phases. Let me explain.
In high school I found myself being constantly asked what college I was planning to go to and what I would major in. Then once in college it became the constant question of "how are you liking it?" and what I planned to do with my life. Now having graduated years ago and moved into full "adulthood", the topics of small talk party conversation have gotten closer to being that of politics, religion, etc... but not quite yet.
I still find a main line of questioning starting out with what job I currently have. This of course doesn't stay very interesting because there's only so many ways to explain how you end up getting paid every two weeks. It's at this point that the conversation seems to make a jump backwards. Unless you're a doctor, lawyer, then the next question asked is "what did you go to school for?". It's as if I'm an adult but not quite at that point where people aren't confused about how I got from school to work.
The main reason for this popping up in my head is because tomorrow night I will be taking part in a chili cookoff, in which there will most likely be as much small talk as there will be different kinds of chili.