life as we know it

Everywhere I turn (i.e. here and here), someone is talking about life in the 20s. Because, the fact is, it's kind of hard.

It's fun and amazing and exciting. Heck yes.

But it's hard, too.

It's filled with confusion and comparison and change. And also, it's not like college where there was a clear formula for success (make good grades + make good friends + be productive + have fun = degree). Instead, it's a whole array of wild options - get a job, get a graduate degree, get married, have a baby, buy a house, travel the world, follow the straight&narrow, follow you heart...

Whew.

There are so many options, it can be overwhelming trying to figure out (1) what you're supposed to do (2) what you want to do (3) if one and two match.

And I had a little bit of a hard time with it there for a minute, and sometimes still do have my moments of panic (sorry, friends, who have to sit through these moments), but for the most part, I kind of love it.

Sure, it can be a little tricky when I see people younger than me, who seem to be advancing more quickly down a path that I think I'm ready for. Or, even sometimes, are doing something totally different than me. My friends and I were recently joking that sometimes we see someone doing something, and we think: Dangit! Why am I not traveling Europe right now? Even though, had you asked us an hour ago, we didn't even want to travel Europe.

It's just tricky!

And I can't give you any sort of formula to make it less tricky. All we can do is embrace this time right now and realize that it's OK that we don't have the answers. We don't have to know where it is, exactly, that we want to go. We just have to keep making positive life decisions to make us slightly better people, hopefully making the world a slightly better place. And before we know it, we might stumble upon just what it is we're looking for. Or better yet, we might realize we had it all along.

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