Being a week shy of your 22nd Birthday creates an exciting time in one's life. At this point, you have made it into your twenties as you continue as a young adult, trying to figure out what direction your life is headed in. The awkward middle school years, fully equipped with braces and a strange wardrobe are gone. Your angsty teenage years of being convinced you are correct all of the time and you know exactly what is best for yourself are behind you. This age allows for ideas of where your life is headed paired with the understanding that being in the early years of this new decade creates an opportunity to explore, discover, and wander.
By this point, you've experienced the excitement of finally becoming a teenager. Passing your license test in celebration of your Sweet Sixteen feels like ages ago, and you become more aware of reaching the milestone ages of "becoming an adult" from every new responsibility that comes your way. Turning 21 allows for us to finally tackle the first of many legal drinks, and no longer have to use the fake ID's that we spend aggressive amounts of money on in hopes of passing as being of age. Crossing the bridge from your teenage years into your twenties comes with a new sense of sophistication and credibility with what we are capable of doing.
The age of 22 creates an opportunity for you to recognize that at this stage of our lives, we are old enough to know that the little things should not matter. What we believe to be a life crisis is, in the long run, minor compared to the larger picture. Comparatively, we are still young enough to not know exactly what we want or where we are headed. This point of our lives is all about living in the moment, recognizing all that has been accomplished through our journeys, and welcoming new adventures and people into our lives. During this in-between stage, we begin to graduate school, earn our first real job, start living in our own apartments, and know that any future wedding plans are far off in the distant future. We must start to take ourselves seriously, knowing that being an adult requires focus, drive and passion.
With that being said, this pivotal point of our lives permits us to embrace our loneliness as we view it as self-chosen independence from all of the life that is still left to live. We comfort ourselves through the impacting friendships we have formed over the years, knowing these bonds are forever. Twenty-two is understanding that over the years we have learned immeasurable amounts of life lessons, yet we do not actually know anything at all. Questions still need answers, and discoveries still must be made about ourselves. Being unable to make decisions and changing our minds every five minutes is second nature to us. There is beauty in not knowing what is to come in the future, and we can find comfort in knowing that any mistakes we make shape us into better versions of our future selves.
