Being In Your 20s Is Weird

When you’re a kid, being in your 20s can feel like a million years away.

You want to grow up as fast as you can, hating it when every adult calls you “The Kid”.

You can’t wait to move out of your parents’ house, get your first job, and finally figure everything out.

But when you’re finally 20, all you want is to crawl back into your mother’s womb and call it quits.

Because being in your 20s is weird.

It’s a paradox of expectation versus reality, and you have no idea where to place yourself.

You’re expected to have things figured out, and yet you have no idea what it is you’re trying to figure out.

You’re underestimated but expected to know things you didn’t know.

You’re told you’re an impostor, but they treat you like you should know what you’re doing.

If we thought being a teenager was hard, think again.

We think that at this point we should be earning a lot of money. That we’re going to buy a house soon. Or that we’re getting married. Or that we’d have a stable career.

But the reality of it is, you’re no further from that fresh graduate who has no idea how the real world actually works.

We’re still navigating between our own expectations and the realities of it.

We might think our whole life that we wanted to be an astronaut, but then we’re faced with the reality of the training and cost to be one.

We might think our whole life that we wanted to be in a stable relationship, but then you have no idea who you are anyway to be with someone.

We might think our whole life that we wanted to be living in the city or near the ocean, only to hate it when we’re actually there.

Being in your 20s can feel like this constant touch and go game, where you try out the things you thought you liked and having to judge whether you still like it or not.

Being in your 20s can feel like this constant “I know this but I don’t” game, where you have to follow expectations without really knowing what those expectations are.

Being in your 20s can feel like this constant “make believe” game, where you think you’re a “real” adult, but you’re still learning what that actually means.

I’m not sure when it’ll get easier.

I’m not even sure if IT WILL get easier.

What I do know, is that we have to stick together.

Help out a fellow twenty-something through life. Cheer each other on. Cry together.

Because the only time it’ll feel less weird is if we have another weirdo in our midst.

Then it feels normal.

Not weird at all.