Im just a two year old adult
“I’m twenty-two years old, and I have no idea what I’m going to do with the rest of my life! And I’m fine with that!”
To be twenty-two and uncertain seems daunting. As a society, we have built a ladder that is assumed individuals will thoughtlessly climb throughout their lives. Graduate high school, go to college, graduate again, get a ‘good’ job, get married, start a family and so on. But the period after graduating college is communally a popular stage that many of us become uncertain for the first time. It’s often the first time we stand with no direction at all. We go from multiple choice, to written response. Transferring from choosing out of a pool of options, to having to come up with our own ideas, goals and making our own decisions. THAT- is daunting.
Not to mention, our twenties are free range. Some of us are still in school while others are getting married, some are getting our dream jobs and some of us are travelling across the world without a place to stay. Nobody is on the right path, because there isn’t one. For the first time, we aren’t congregated into a mold. Shaped to be like everyone else. For the first time, we are taught to embrace our differences and celebrate being unique in what we are doing.
It’s easy to feel behind. I feel behind all the time. All my friends graduated, some with double majors or honors. And here I am, still in school chasing any internship I can get my hands on. I have set unattainable standards, but if I were to stand by anyone in the position I am in I would be cheering them on all the way. So why am I any different?
I think it’s easy to hold ourselves to standards we would never hold for anyone else. We have been raised on competition and comparison. Fed consistently the plate of greed in success. We will never be good enough for ourselves because we were taught that somebody was always better, but nobody else is in our shoes. And I think that is what we often forgot alongside comparison. We are each unique. Authentic to ourselves and our own journey. I am an apple, and you are a clover. We are not comparable. Both admirable, both strong and successful in altering ways. But uncomparable.
Things rings true regarding our twenties. We are all just doing our best, our first time in this life with no instructions or guidelines. And any we have been given, were created by another person who is always living for the first time.
So if you’re twenty, and you have no idea what you’re doing with your life. You are not behind. You are not doing something wrong. In fact, how lucky you are to have a million doors to walk through. And dont forget, if it doesn’t work out, there’s always another door, another hallway or another floor you can take. You can’t compare your path to mine when Im walking in the forest, and you’re walking on the beach.
