Everyone always says that your twenties should be the best years of your life. It is the time where you should be building a strong base for your future, indulging in new experiences, and eventually finding your true self through personal growth. Being a planner, I wanted to be ahead of the game, of life actually, and plan when these things would happen.

So from a very early age, I knew exactly how my twenties were going to be like. At twenty years old, I would be working as an administrative assistant at a law firm, and I would be deciding whether or not it was truly the right career for me.

At twenty-one, I would finally be able to go to the bars I had always tried sneaking in my senior year in high school (sorry mom). I would go out every weekend, meet new people, and make crazy memories with my best friends.

At twenty-two, I would graduate college and move on to graduate or law school. I would also meet the love of my life that year and we would get engaged after four years of dating. I would be working at my dream job by the time I got married, and the rest was still a work in progress.

Because it is natural and healthy to set long-term goals for yourself, I didn't see a problem in my extremely meticulous plan. I was going to be very happy when these events happened.

But when was this personal growth going to start? And in my case, at what age, so I could squeeze it in my life schedule? After a series of disappointments, setbacks, heartbreaks, and failures in the past two years, I saw that I had not prepared myself because I had never really learned to accept disappointments into my life.

I had also never thought about what really made me happy and had no idea what it could be.

I could only learn this when I was put to the test. I didn't get the law firm job I wanted when I was twenty, and I didn't accept that it was because I just wasn't qualified enough.

I could either stay unqualified or start working on professional skills. I watched videos on how to ace interviews, I went to the career development at my school, and I started applying qualities I saw in professionals to my everyday life.

This year, especially, has been a year of much personal growth. I started getting more into fitness and really taking care of my health, and this has been one of the best decisions of my life. It was something I hadn't planned on doing, but it felt amazing. I joined school clubs that required me to step out of my shell, and that too was a surprise.

If I would've told myself a year ago that what I wrote would be all over the internet, I wouldn't have believed myself. I am doing more things for myself than ever before.

I am about to be twenty-two and I still don't really know what I want to do. I am a political science major and I enjoy politics and writing, but I am still finding my way. I am no longer focused on setting strict expectations for myself because life is a big surprise and we should let it surprise us.