The Pressure of Being in Your 20’s

Let’s just get it all out on the table now. You thought middle school would be the most difficult. Didn’t you?! Now if you are anything like me, you long for the days of free school, a set schedule, summer vacations, free housing and meals, a person who takes care of all money issues so you can just play. I mean, right?!

Being in your 20’s is way more difficult than middle school. Who on earth told us those were the worst years of our life?! We were sure we’d have life figured out by the time we were in our twenties. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth!

Being in your 20’s straight up sucks. Do you go to college? Do you go into the workforce? Do you get married? Do you start a family? Do you buy a house? What if you still don’t know what you want to be when you grow up?!

I have to tell you friend. It is okay. When I was a kid I was absolutely sure that I would find my husband in high school or college, date for 5-7 years, get engaged at 24, married and buying a house by 25, and birthing or adopting my first kid at 26.

That timeline is now the most hilarious hoopla!

I definately did not meet the man I want to spend my life with in college or high school. Now, at 25, I can assure you I am not even close to ready or even necessarily want to get married and be a parent.

The trouble is so many of us had these ideas of where we would be, what we would accomplish, and who we’d be by this point in our life. The truth is, school messed with us. School made us believe there was a stepping ladder for life. We thought that we’d hit these life goal posts by certain ages because we were a specific age when we went to middle school and then high school and then college.

We we are stuck in a sequential mindset in a winding and twisting world.

Remind yourself that you are so not alone. We’ve all gone through this time of dealing with the expectations from others and ourselve. But life is an adventure, there will be different seasons and paths that lead to off-road and unexpected destinations.

Just think about this:

J.K. Rowling had been married, divorced, and a single mother dealing with severe depression before she published Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone at the age of 32.

Oprah Winfrey was molested and placed in foster care as a child, became pregnant at 14 (the child passed after 2 weeks), was fired from her first new anchor position, and took a position in a low-rated half-hour morning talk show before developing an audience and landing her own show at the age of 32.

Jeff Bezos’s parents divorced when he was young and he‘s gone his entire life never knowing his biological father. He worked at McDonald’s and then a start up before having his Amazon business idea. He founded the company in his garage at the age of 30.

All of these people were barely discovering their passion in their 30’s and spent decades building up to the success they have today.

There is no timeline on life.

Own your story.

Own your adventure.