"You're halfway to 40-years-old."

That really messed me up when I heard that from my friend. I've lived twenty years of my life, and with my birthday just passing, I'm now undoubtedly half way to my mid-life crisis. What a time to be alive.

The craziest part is that I feel like I've done nothing productive with my life so far. Yet, I'm expected (from myself and from society) to completely engineer and construct my life right now.

Although I'm still young, I have so many goals and expectations. I feel like every year that goes by I'm constantly telling myself, "one day." But, there is nothing more eye-opening than the epiphany that I can accomplish all of my goals and dreams right now; I don't have to wait. I am actively trying to pursue them, but sometimes I shy away from the fact that I'm an adult, and I need to do these things now because there is no later.

I'm twenty years old now. I'm not a teenager. I have so much potential, but I feel as if I'm on the clock in a professional sports team draft. I have to figure it all out before time runs out. I grapple with the fact that I need to be patient AND productive at the same time. But I need to lay the foundation for my future self.

So here's the deal/plan. I'm young, yes. I'm ambitious, yes. But the world doesn't just reward you for that alone. I'm often either too patient, or too nervous for fear of lackadaisical productivity. It's hard for me to pick a happy medium. But the bottom line is simple; I need to do what I want to do.

(Quick side note: this advice is for myself, mostly). If you wait on everything to come to you, you'll quite literally get nowhere. You need to be a go-getter. Meet people that inspire you, that have the same goals and desires as you, and explicitly show their drive and passim towards what they intend to accomplish. You need to want to get to your destination badly, and work towards it every day. An important part of that is to believe your vision and speak to where you want to be. If you talk and act like you're stuck where you are, or play the victim mentality, or simply settle for the level of success you have already obtained, that's where you will ultimately stay.

It's never too early in your life to strive for everything you've ever wanted. Too often the society we live in puts our futures in a place that seems so far away in terms of both time and effort. But everything you want is right at your fingertips. Wield the tools for success you have around you, no matter how young you may be, because the earlier you lay the framework for your dreams, the faster you can achieve them