Her Campus Logo Her Campus Logo
clocks
clocks
Photo by Jon Tyson from Unsplash
SBU | Career > Her20s

Age is Just a Number

Cecelia Mineo Student Contributor, St. Bonaventure University
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at SBU chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

By the time this article is published, it will have been nearly a month into my junior year of college, and two weeks since I turned 20. Twenty is a CRAZY number to me, to be honest.

Honestly, I hated being a teenager, especially this last year. I felt like I was just waiting for my 20s: like the day I turned 20, I would automatically wake up knowing where I want to go in life. I’d wake up with so much more freedom to grow up. But that didn’t happen. In fact, I turned 20 and spent my birthday wishing that I had gone through life wanting for time to slow down, not speed up.

Whoops, I told you my birthday wish. Guess it won’t come true.

And, in case you were wondering, being 20 feels just like being 19. Nothing’s changed. I’m just as lost, have just as much freedom, and am doing all of the same things I did two weeks ago.

Whenever my mom tells me the story of how she met my dad, it always started that they met when she was 21. Twenty-one years old. As of right now, I have 354 days until I turn 21, which feels like I am running out of time.

What happens if I don’t follow my mother’s timeline, and I don’t meet the love of my life at 21? When she used to tell me this at 16, I would brush it off and keep going on with my stupid high school relationships. After all, I had five years until I was 21.

I switched my major halfway through sophomore year, basically starting all over. Now, I’m sitting in my introduction classes with freshmen and sophomores, wondering if I’m falling behind. I have so much to do, and less than two years left of college to do it. I have until I’m 21 to figure out where I’ve been, where I am, and where I’m going.

It feels like I am running out of time.

The clock until I turn 21 is ticking, and I’m running out of time. I feel like I have so much to do before I graduate, and so much to do before I settle down. It feels like my brain is running at literally a million miles an hour, and my life along with it.

Then, I’m sitting in my Gardens apartment with my friends watching a stupid movie, and I realize, age is just a number. I’m just 20; I’m just in the 15th grade, and I have so much time. Time to figure it out, time to have fun, time to be myself. My life doesn’t end when I’m 20. In fact, it’s just beginning. So what if I don’t find the love of my life by 21? So what if it took me a while to figure out my passion in college?

Age is just a number, and I have so much time.

Cecelia Mineo

SBU '27

Cecelia Mineo is brand new to the St. Bonaventure chapter of Her Campus! She is hoping to write about literally anything; music, travel, or school.
Cecelia is a junior at SBU, studying public health with a minor in business administration. She is Secretary of the Class of 2027 at SBU, three years running. Cecelia is also public relations of Health Science Club, a team leader at Enactus, an intern with the Bona Cabrini Program, and can be found always running around campus.
Outside of school, Cecelia loves reading, hiking, the beach, and hanging out with friends. If there is a Buffalo Bills game that day, she will always be watching or listening. She is obsessed with her puppy, Emmy, has probably listened to Treaty Oak Revival's entire discography ten times over and will always say yes to a concert trip.