Your 20s Aren’t “the Time of Your Life” — They’re the Opening Act
The five lessons my friends and I gained from our 20s.
Wearing a party hat I fashioned using flashcards and a shoelace, a glass of cava in hand, a cupcake supporting a disproportionately large candle, and truth be told, in my pajamas, I jumped on (yet another) Zoom call. Six friends and I wanted to celebrate our friend Maia’s 30th birthday!
Having taken a couple of gap years before going to university, Maia is the first in the group to reach the big 3.0. So, this was a big moment for all of us, who seem to think we exist as a collective as opposed to seven independent individuals. Needless to say, this supposed-celebration turned into an emotional ride down memory lane.
It’ll be seven years this summer since we graduated, and it’s alarming how quickly these years have flown by; how much we’ve all done, and yet how little we feel we’ve achieved. Whatever happened to our “big plans”? — What even were our big plans back then? Unanimously, we all felt every expectation we had for our 20s was completely misguided.
As much as they’re often painted as “the best years of your life,” they’ve turned out to be the most unsettling and stressful years of ours. I mean we’ve had some great moments; we’ve celebrated engagements and…
