Your 20s Are The Perfect Time To Be Lost And Confused

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I came to a stunning realization today.

Today, while sitting in my mildly uncomfortable office chair, in front a ten-year-old outdated Mac, in my blindingly sun-yellow office, tucked away in the back of the two-story office building of the business forms company that I work at. It’s Friday – instead of doing what I should be – I’m a graphic designer – I’m sitting, lost in my thoughts.

But that’s okay. You know why?

Because I’m young. I’m a twenty-something, still working my way through college. I live in a three-bedroom house that my parents still pay half the rent on. I drive two vehicles over ten years old, but I own them both. I have an iPhone 6, but my parents pay for that, too. I have a dog and a cat that rely on me. I have a handful of friends that are true friends, the rest of them I just like to get drunk with.

But that’s okay. You know why?

Because in our twenties, we don’t have to have our lives together. We don’t have to know what we’re going to do with the next fifty or seventy or one hundred years of our lives, and that’s okay. This is our time to be stupid, this is our time to find ourselves. This is the time to live through broken hearts, vicious hangovers, and having our asses handed to us by our bosses.

It’s also okay if you can’t follow your wanderlust like you see everyone else doing. Would you love to travel abroad, but have to work to make ends meet, instead? That’s okay. You know why? Because where you are at this very moment, be it in a boring gen-ed, or your minimum wage job, or even sitting in your BMW that you’ve purchased with your own money (if this is you, hmu, for real, we need to be friends), that’s where you’re supposed to be. If you’re able to follow your heart to the ends of the world, more power to you, please let me stalk your Instagram.

It’s okay if you’re a twenty something with a broken heart that doesn’t know how to fix it. It’s okay if you have lost the people that are most important to you. If I have learned anything in my time on this earth, the people that leave are not supposed to be there. Losing someone does not mean that your have lost yourself. You are now challenged with a new opportunity – rediscover yourself. Reinvent yourself. Become the person that you dream of being. Build yourself, and others around you, up. Sure, it is safe and healthy to be sad some days. You don’t always have to be wearing a smile. But, whatever you do, keep toxic people away, and don’t you ever, ever give up.

It’s okay if you’re petrified of something. Whether that something is money (or lack thereof), or grades, or where you’re going to sleep tomorrow night, or grave illness. We are young. Things are still supposed to scare us. We are going to be scared of something the entire time that we are on this earth, and that’s normal. It’s okay if you’re stressed about life; just do not let it drag you down. Let the stress, worry, concern build you into a stronger person, do not let it drag you to the depths and try to take you down with it.

At the end of the day, we are still just twenty-somethings with our whole lives ahead of us. We aren’t supposed to have everything figured out already – if we did, life wouldn’t be this scary, exciting adventure that it is.

So, whether you are a broke college student, a young businessperson, or a youthful vagabond – keep your head up. Power through it. Laugh it up. Drink it down. Keep yourself centered and grounded. Enjoy people in your lives that keep your soul happy. Rid yourself of toxic people and situations. Know in your heart that where you are is where you are destined to be. And don’t you ever, ever give up.