Before turning 20, I thought it was such a meaningless birthday. Turning 18 meant you were finally an adult, 19 was the last of your teenage years, and 21 is well... 21. Besides the start of my 20s it meant nothing, until I began to think about it... which naturally led to panic.
When you turn 20, questions finally become “real”. Whenever someone use to ask what I wanted to do with my life I would blow it off with a generic answer of "something to do with my major." Now the career I choose is real and prevalent. Saying "I don’t know" or "something in business" is not as easy, because in just about two years I will begin a career, not just a meaningless job.
Internships finally become reality. There is so much preparation and talk of your first internship and then before you know it you are being pressured to apply and all of those interview practices make sense.
At this age, most people are in their junior year of college, which is where much of the panic stems from. You are half way done with the best four years of your life. All your life you have waited for the day you don’t have to go to class anymore and now the thought of that ending in two years is terrifying.
20 is such a contradiction of an age. You are basically an adult and extremely independent, but at the same time you feel like a kid who should not have to be concerned with the looming responsibilities of laundry, cooking, and cleaning.
One of the most terrifying thoughts is what comes with this decade. It is possible you could get married, have a child, and most likely buy your first place to live all on your own.
Even though 20 brings a bit of a life crisis, it also brings great things just as every age does. You gain so much independence, become more self assured, and you get to be young. The 20s are still a great age to be a little reckless.
Now that I am half way through 20, I realize it is not as scary as I once thought it would be. Taking all of these new steps has been kind of fun.
So although the 20 year old life crisis can be alarming, take it one day at a time and enjoy all the fantastic and frightening things this age has to bring.
