We all had big dreams when we were little kids.
Some of us wanted to be astronauts, some of us wanted to become the President of our own countries, and some of us even dreamt of sailing across the globe––and some of us really did accomplish the dreams we had when we were younger.
Others, on the other hand, took a completely different path, and that’s okay. Becoming different people with different dreams, different personalities, different mindsets, and different goals is a part of growing up.
The reality of growing up is that circumstances can change in the blink of an eye, and it is completely up to us to adapt. Finances come into play, new-found dreams and goals are discovered, and relationships and other commitments get in the way. Change is unavoidable.
The truth about laying out a plan in your early 20s is that we must always prepare for uncertainty. This isn’t to say that we must discourage ourselves from believing that our goals and dreams aren’t bound to happen, but rather, the trait of being flexible is something we must develop at such a vital age.
Our early 20s can be some of the best years of our lives. It’s the official beginning of adulthood, but still gives us the right to claim that we’re young any time we want to do something reckless (or is that just me?).
It’s also the best time to lay out a plan and pinpoint the goals we would like to achieve in the following years, whether it be in a year or ten; however, because the uncertainty of life gets in the way, a whole lot of us tend to get discouraged when our plans don’t turn out the way we expected them to. Some of us run into financial difficulties that would force us to stop our education and we end up not being able to experience the college life to the fullest; some of us get into serious and committed relationships that would force us to take different factors into consideration when making big life decisions such as moving out of the country to pursue a career; some of us get into traumatic and unfortunate situations that don’t allow us to physically get out of bed to accomplish the things that we had initially planned to do; it sucks, but it’s a reality that we must learn to accept.
The bright side to this is that you are not alone; if you are a “glass is half full” type of person, then you must never forget that there is a silver lining to everything.
Our early 20s can still be the best years of our lives––it all comes down to how we perceive our situations and what we do to adapt to what we are going through in life; then again, for some people, the idea of finding a silver lining to everything is an overly romanticised concept, and that is perfectly fine. We all have different views in this world, and that’s what makes the talks on controversial topics so great.
We all move at different paces in life. It’s time we stop obsessing over where we think we should be in life, but rather, slow down, and embrace the journey. You’ll never know, you might learn a lot about yourself and what you really want to do with your life. Be fearless and take chances; take that risk despite knowing you could fail. Take care of yourself and care much less about what other people think.
Your 20s are for you, and nobody can take that away from you.
