I turned 22 recently. I feel as if my life is moving at a very rapid pace and it’s scary and uncomfortable, but it’s something I’m coming to terms with more and more with each passing year. We all grow up fast, whether we savor our days or not. 3 turns into 5 and then 7 and double-digits 10 before we even think we’re getting any older.
We learn a lot of things growing up, the basics like sharing and being compassionate. As a teen we learn about heartbreak and harder school skills. But, as a twenty-something, we learn about ourselves. And this might be the hardest, most relentless, most frightening and yet most rewarding discovery of them all.
This is the part of our life where we’re very alone for the first time maybe ever. Even if you have a ton of friends, a loving family or a great significant other, you still move through life mostly alone. You have to figure out yourself, where you’re headed and what you want on your own. When I turned 20, although I was still living at home, I learned that I was a great writer. At 21 I learned how loving I could be to myself, others and the planet surrounding me. At 22 I hope to learn more about myself, who I am and who I am becoming and what exactly I want. I hope to have opportunities that I take chances on, I hope to say yes more and I hope to advance in my career path even more.
21-year-old Meg Masseron says, “Being twenty or above isn’t immediately different than being 18 or 19. I often still think of myself as a teenager just out of default, because I was treated as a child for so long that there’s still a part of me that has trouble believing in my own maturity and my capabilities as a grown adult. The lesson I’ve learned is that I never turned 20 and “grew up,” I already had all of that inside of me. I just hadn’t had the chance to demonstrate that intelligence and maturity as a young woman because no one took me seriously. Had I believed in myself more prior to turning 20, then once I was actually an adult, I would’ve felt like one, and spent so much less time second guessing my choices. Now that I’ve been above 20 for a minute, I’m learning to trust myself to be smart and capable.”
Our twenties are a place to find ourselves. Find what you’re made of, what you’re supposed to become and what you want out of life within these crucial years. Travel, meet the love of your life or fall in love with yourself, finish college with a degree or get a job you love, transfer schools until you feel good, meet the people you want to hang out with for the rest of your life, maybe even get married or start creating your family life. There are so many things you can do in your twenties that maybe you couldn’t do in your teens or before. Find yourself. Make yourself your home. You only get one of you. Choose you.
The safety net of childhood dreams is no longer below me, but I know how to catch my own fall now and pick myself back up. Twenty-somethings are scary, but this is our time.