#dross talks

I did too when I was your age. I think my early-mid 20's was the most stressful part of my life. I got dropped onto this huge learning curve where I didn't know anything but was somehow expected to just transition from a teenager to a full blown responsible adult and drop everything I enjoyed in exchange for taking on a 9-5, paying bills and trying to form relationships.

For a while I was miserable, I was doing everything "right" and hitting all the milestones that made me an "adult" but I had stopped doing all the things that brought me joy. After running myself so ragged I endangered my health I finally realized that making myself unhappy wasn't actually benefiting me or anyone else so I started picking up my favorite hobbies again. I play DnD, fiddle with my old lego sets and I write and draw for fun. I still do my 9-5 and pay my bills but afterwards I pour my coffee into my batman mug and watch my favorite episodes of Batman TAS. I'm all grown up and I'm in my own house, who's going to give me a hard time about it?

You will change, you'll lose interest in some of the things you like now and the things you keep you'll enjoy differently when you're older but if you're truly meant to outgrow something it will happen organically and it won't feel like you're depriving yourself.

Things are hard, things are stressful, and you're about to hit one of life's bumpiest stretches of the road, don't make the journey harder than it needs to be by forcing yourself to put your favorite things away before you're ready to let them go. Life should get better, not worse, as you get older.