I Was Not Prepared For My 20s.
I am at that young adult stage — when I have just fully flown out of my parent’s nest into the real world.
I have always romanticized the idea of living on my own through school and college life (yes all those movies and TV series showing how great 20s life is). Of being totally independent and having full control of my life. The truth is early 20s can be one of the hardest times of life and nobody told me this. It’s when I have to make all those hard choices and live on my own and it can be pretty daunting.
I was in a hurry to settle — to have that perfect job and the perfect relationships right away. And one big thing I learned recently –
Things take time — I can’t have the perfect life right away. Rome was not built in a day. Same goes with life. And I can’t be stuck at home waiting for the perfect things to happen. The idea is to get moving. I chose the best option available to start with. I learned not to expect my 100% best life right away. Even 40% would be great to start with. I have to keep enjoying it and at the same time work towards the next best thing possible.
Great products become great after a lot of feedback, reviewing and bettering. Same goes with life. I will slowly evolve into that perfect life.
There is no hurry — The average life expectancy (world average) of a person is 71.5. So why is there all this stupid theory of ‘settling’ before 30? Even people who did all the settling admit to feeling empty and unfulfilled after a while.
I just need to keep exploring (within the constraints of the real world. Money-Sigh!) of what I really want and what makes me happy. And this again keeps changing. So there is really no pressure. So I learned to —
Chill. And live slow.
Stop regretting — I for a while regretted doing the wrong college major and taking the wrong first job. Firstly, regret is a real waste of my time and energy. I can’t really go back in time and change things. And secondly, there is nothing to regret about! I didn’t know it was not for me back then. Only the experience of going through it has taught me more about myself and my abilities. So I learned to learn from it!
Letting go of dreams that don’t make sense anymore — I am changing. My experiences are changing. People around me are changing. So I let go of dreams that don’t make sense anymore. Just because it meant everything to me once upon a time — doesn’t mean I need to fulfill it.
I learned to adapt to the changing me.
Same goes for relationships. I let go of relationships that doesn’t mean anything to me anymore. I don’t need to try too hard to maintain them — just because it was great once upon a time.
There is no right and wrong — There is no ‘perfect’ or the ‘right’ life. It’s the way of looking at it. The happiness ultimately lies in my mind. And lastly and more importantly,
I learned to Enjoy the now
Because life is only about the journey, not the destination.
Happy adulting!
Thanks for reading! I am Greeshma and I write on living a more meaningful and fulfilling life on my blog Way of Living. Check out my latest post —
Originally published at wayofliving.online on January 27, 2018.
