That period in life after you hit 21, where your twenties kind of get all muddled together is referred to as being in your “twenty-somethings”. In this period, you more than likely consider yourself a grown individual and probably partake in “adult responsibilities” but you are basically still seen as a child. Just the other day I was in an Uber and the Uber driver struck up a conversation with me as most of the drivers do. I was asked little things about my life, stuff about college which included what year I was in. I told her I was a senior and she said “Oh! You’re almost done! You prepared to enter the real world?” and I just smiled and sat there thinking about what that phrase even means.
Just because I am a twenty-something and about to graduate from college, does not mean that my experiences are not real or that I have not been in the real world. I get it. Your twenties are not usually associated with having your life together, but then again, who really does? In general, your twenties can be confusing because you and your peers may be at very different points in your lives. People you know are getting married, having children, have started/barely starting their careers, in college, traveling the world, or none of the above. There is no right way to spend your twenties just different choices made, paths taken, and goals reached. These are all real and very different experiences but experiences all the same. Besides, no one should undermine your experiences just because of your age.
Also, for some peculiar reason, there exists the belief that you have to spend your early twenties figuring yourself out in order to set yourself up for your forever career that you’re expected to start sometime in your late twenties. You are typically in college for four to six years, deciding within that time what you want to do for the rest of your life. That in itself is nerve-wrecking. You can have this whole idea of what you want to do in the future and realize that you do not enjoy it as much as you thought you would, making you reconsider all that you’ve planned. Or you could have no clue what you want to do which can make you feel stuck and really stressed about not finding your true life’s calling like you anticipated you would. Just know that you can take time to figure out your goals for the future. There are so many people, who are already in their more established years, who just wake up and realize that they don’t like what they do. Some even return to college to pursue their life’s passions and interests, so that they can enter a career/field they actually look forward to and think they can wholeheartedly enjoy. So, it’s okay to be lost and unsure on your search for the lifework that you can truly see yourself doing because to a degree, everyone is.
Now the only real downside to being a twenty-something young adult is how we are perceived by older generations. They feel that since we have not lived as long as they have then we do not have the life experience or authentic enough insight to be taken seriously. Figure of speech or not, the whole “welcome to the real world” phrase you get as you are approaching the end your academic career, getting a job, and/or starting a family is unneeded and sorely overused. You do not magically enter another world after college or any other life event, you just see a different aspect of the same old world. All this phrase serves to do is reduce twenty-somethings to something-less-than-adult.
To my fellow twenty-somethings, don’t be too discouraged about the uncertainty of the future because everybody is just as nervous as you are about reaching the next stage in life whether they be in their twenties or not. Also, your ability has little to do with your age. Twenty-somethings are underestimated and overlooked because of our age. It can be a struggle to prove ourselves because of this, but in the end, ability speaks for itself. So, brush the assumptions off and show them what you’re made of!