As we both screamed obnoxiously loud at the discovery that our birthdays were in the same month, my new roommate and I soon came to realize this upcoming birthday meant the end of teenage years for the both of us. “Ew, 20?” she said.
Although turning 20 is in no way an acceptable age to complain of having a life crisis, in a way, we felt we were having one. I know some 30-year-old will click on this article and roll their eyes at the sophomore in college who “has barely begun her life” but there is something about leaving the teenage years that puts everything in a new perspective.
You think this feeling would have hit us more when we turned 18. You are finally an “adult.” But, public announcement to all you high school students who can’t wait to legally buy your pack of cigarettes, all that really happens when turning 18 is your best friend posting an Instagram with a “#mybitchisfinallylegal” caption and learning that “I’m a kid, I didn’t know any better”, won’t slide anymore.
As most soon-to-be 20-year-olds would be excited about their upcoming birthday, blinded by visions of a fake ID-free life in their near future, my roommate and I felt differently. We, instead, sat there talking about how weird it was that we never got to be 7 years old again, never have the awkward phase in high school again, and that “When I grow up…” was becoming a more and more unrealistic way to start our sentences.
When you turn 10 years old, you don’t have many expectations by the time you leave the 10s. Granted, you’re also a little bit naïve to think about the future in such an intense way. But when you turn 20, you think about what the general expectations are for you in your 20s. Sure, you can be one of those people that say you don’t conform to society’s timeline pressures but more or less, you’ll start wondering if you should be finding the one to marry, settling down in a career path, or learning to sip on a glass of wine for a fun evening versus the normal puking out the Uber car window after a night out with your buddies.
I think the root of this “crisis” of mine is that time is going so fast and it is the one thing I can’t control in my life. I hate how it has taken me 19 years and 8 months to figure this out, but you really can’t take one minute for granted. The last thing I want is for this article to have a cheesy twist, but it’s true.
Although I wasn’t fortunate enough to meet my grandfather, there is one part of him that my parents keep alive. He always use to say “Life is not a dress rehearsal”. No words of advice or wisdom have ever stuck with me the way that quote has.
To me, this means that you never say things like “I’ll get to that…” or “I would love to do this one day…”, or “This day has sucked.” You don’t get any re-dos in life because time keeps moving. So don’t let any day be a half-assed rehearsal. Make every day the opening night of the show.
Although there are days where staying in bed with Ben and Jerry’s and Netflix-binging so hard that the only movement you are doing is clicking the “yes” button to “continue watching?”, are necessary, you shouldn’t be having many of them. You can have dreams and aspirations for the future but don’t wait to start making your life amazing. Doesn’t matter what age you are, how much money you have or where you live, make every millisecond count.
The way my parents explain it to me is that my grandfather would not have taken any negative remarks for an answer. He would have said get up and do what ever you have to do today, mark things off your bucket list today or make a random day the best day ever because you know why? Life is not a dress rehearsal.
