I recently stumbled upon a post that's been shared through various social media sources "Why does being in your early 20s feel so much like only having 5 years of your life left in which you need to achieve as much as possible? Why do I feel like I have an approaching deadline for success?"
Honestly, I totally wonder this myself. It seems like everyone in my age group of 20-25 is in some hurry to accomplish all of life's achievements before the ripe old age of 26. We graduate college with the immediate focus on getting a job, then we get said job and not even 1 month in to it many are already focused on their next job, their next level of schooling, getting married, etc.
I have been asked the "what's next" question literally as soon as I graduated college. I was beyond lucky to land an amazing first job in the city I always wanted to live in. My plan has been to stay here for 2-3 years and then attend grad school in D.C., but I've never been married to these plans, I'm more of a "we'll have to see where I'm at when the time comes" type of person. I don't have life plans etched in stone. I like the ambiguity. I worked tirelessly to get to my current point in life and I'm going to breath easy and enjoy it.
However, this seems to shock people when they come to realize I'm in no hurry to get to the next "milestone" in life. Not even one week into my new job, people were already asking me "So what are your plans? What's next for you?" To that I would give my pre-programmed spiel of how I want to work here for 3 years, get a masters in Public Policy/Government Affairs, move to D.C. But all I could think to myself was "geez can you let me catch my breath? I just graduated college I want some time to just settle in and take it easy for now." Like, what is everyone in such a hurry for? Isn't the beauty of life to just enjoy the natural progression of things and slowly pave your road?
Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither should your life.
Most of my age group is already thinking years ahead of themselves and planning what grad school/law school they want to attend, where they want to move next, and even where they eventually want to settle down and raise a family. Most of them literally have everything down to the last detail of their lives pre-planned, leaving me to feel as if I am too careless and unorganized since, unlike them, I don't have my entire life planned.
Everyone's too focused on the "next" and not the "now."
Another thing I feel my age group is rushing too fast is relationships. I can literally count on my fingers all the single people I know since that's how few of them are left. Everyone around me seems to be in long term committed relationships. Almost every one of these couples talks about spending the rest of their lives together. Yes, while I am a huge advocate for young love and romance, I feel like these relationships are more driven by fear than by love. Now, there are those young couples out there who are definitely the perfect match, I'm not discounting that at all.
However, I feel like the majority of young couples are just settling for each other because they're too scared to be single again and start over. They're too scared that they won't find someone else, someone who actually is Mr./Mrs. Right. They're too scared to have their "life plan" not go accordingly and have love and marriage happen later than originally expected. They basically think that the person they've been with for X many years has to be the person they marry because God forbid they're not married by age 25...It's almost as if they've forgotten that they're only 20-something years old and have so many years to find their forever-someone.
I guess the point I really want to drive home with this article is that we all need to stop being in such a hurry to get to the next life checkpoint. We all need to slow it down and just embrace the present, for if we keep living our lives so focused on what's next, we'll never enjoy what we actually have at the moment. Personally, I do catch myself thinking too far ahead sometimes or feeling like I need to have XYZ done before age X, but in all honesty, I find that my life is more enjoyable if I just go with the flow. Everything will happen for me at the time it's meant to happen, the way it's supposed to happen.
The best things in life happen unexpectedly. If everything is planned, what fun is left? Fun lays in life's surprises.
Like the quote says: "Don't be so busy making a living that you forget to make a life."
