Maybe someone will hear this, and enjoy their twenties in a way I couldnât.
Iâm 48 now, and my life is honestly just beginning. Itâs only in the last couple of years that Iâve felt like I have anything figured out, and I â and every other adult â is really just kind of faking it most of the time.
Because we were told, over and over again, âgrow up and be responsibleâ so we made the destination the point, and missed a lot of the joy of the journey.
Yes. âGrowing upâ is a thing we all need to do, and we all eventually do.
But when youâre in your 20s? Live your life! Enjoy your life! Youâre going to make a million mistakes. Youâre going to fall down a thousand times. Thatâs part of being in your 20s, and itâs really okay.
You are not the trash that needs to be taken out. You arenât trash at all. Youâre a person and you deserve to be happy and to follow your dreams (and not everyone in their 20s knows what their dreams even are!).
But the most important thing I want to share, the thing I know at least one of you needs to hear, that I hope you can hear and really act upon, is this: Donât give yourself âmy 30th birthdayâ as a deadline to have it all figured out and happening.
When you do that, as I did, you completely lose the fun and the joy and the freedom that is such an essential part of your twenties.
All these questions you have, all this turmoil you feel, all the stress about not being further along your career path ⌠all of that is totally normal. All of your peers are experiencing it. Everyone who was in their 20s before you has experienced that.
Youâre going to be okay. Keep asking the questions, and keep challenging your presumptions. Youâve been told the world is one particular way, by your parents and educators, and now that youâre in your twenties, you get to find out what was true. Figuring all that out takes a lot of time and a lot of energy. You can do it.
I feel everything the OP posted here, in my memories of being 25, and I want the OP to know that I felt all of those things, too. Theyâre part of lifeâs journey, and you are not trash for experiencing all of them.