Trials of Turning Twenty

Twenty. The big 2 0 - is this what it really means to be an adult? Turning 20 is a big milestone, leaving your teenage years behind and stepping (or maybe falling flat on your face) into adulthood. But this doesn't come without fears; fears you're not ready, fears you're not following the same timeline as everyone else. By 20 you're supposed to be in university or in a stable job, with ideas about your future plans and goals, right? Wrong. My twentieth birthday was a time for me to reflect on how much I've changed since I left high school, since I left college, since I finished my first year of uni. All ends brought a different change, slowly maturing and moulding myself into who I wanted to be, with different ideas and perspectives each time and this didn't end the day I turned 20. That was in December, it's now nearly February and I've changed my future career twice, cut all my hair off and applied to study abroad in a different country for a year. Your twenties are for trials. Test your options! If something doesn't work out, try something different. You're half way to 40 when you begin this decade, at the end you'll be half way to 60. Those ten years should be filled with mistakes, every one teaching you a lesson for the future you to appreciate and learn from. This way, you'll be reminiscing with your girlfriends when you meet up after a year apart about that time you had a party and couldn't remember a thing or maybe the time you decided that you wanted to be a lawyer after reading one article and thinking you basically have a degree. Being a teenager was fun but also messy, filled with unnecessary drama and too much comparing myself to other people. I don't want to be 'Twenteen', I want a new chapter, and this is what I've got, but without the pressure of having to have my life together with a childhood sweetheart, engaged by 24, married by 28, kids? I've decided that maybe it's okay to have your life figured out by 30 instead.

Happy New Chapter to me x