As I am fast approaching the grand old age of 28, I have come to realise that the 20’s decade is a beautiful but rickety rollercoaster that you have to ride. When you first got on it, you really wanted to, but as you see the end in sight, you’re pretty glad to get off.
When you first enter your twenties having come out of the other end of the angsty teenage years, the twenties seems bright and fresh and full of hope and possibilities.
You go to university, meet lots of new people, stay up all night partying and then doing a chocolate run during exam/exhibition time. You meet lifelong-friends, some meet their future husbands and wives and you then you enter the adult world a bit exhausted, but excited and full of knowledge – raring to kick-start your career and achieve all those ambitious dreams.
But at the (nearly) grand old age of 28, I don’t feel that I have it all figured out quite yet. Or even nearly figured out at all.
Fast forward a few years and it’s time to reflect on what happened.
Time apparently sped up to the point where you have become one of those people that says, “doesn’t time fly” and “I can’t believe it’s (insert month here) already!” and finally, “ I don’t know where this year has gone”.
I haven’t been in a ‘career’ job for longer than 1.5 years and have racked up a fair few places on my CV as I move from place to place – always searching for ‘that place’ that I can call home.
I have gained lots and lots of transferable skills from 1 industry and have learnt what and where my ‘line’ is with regards to work, the workplace, people and stress. And then I took on a new role and actually learnt it.
I watched Masterchef Australia the other day where one of the 28 year old contestants was called ‘brave’ for discovering what he really wanted to do – even though it was a little late in the game.
Like we are supposed to have it all figured out by now.
And according to the ‘olden days’, in your twenties you are supposed to have:
- Become educated/learn a trade
- Get a job/career and that is just ‘what you do’
- Find a partner
- Buy a house
- Start a family
That seems like an awful lot to me! Of course it doesn’t take into consideration that a lot of people travel these days, change careers and actually don’t even end up doing what they spent thousands studying. Yay for the recession!
A few weeks ago – all of this really bothered me. I have a little bit of a meltdown thinking that I was the only person in the world riding this rollercoaster.
From the outside, it always seems like everyone else has it together.
It seems like most of my friends have their careers on track and in a good place – something of which i am still envious of as I struggle to figure out whether the last 5 years in my industry have been any good for me and whether I can continue or want to continue down this path.
However I know the grass is always greener. I have met the love of my life who I will proudly call my husband in a few months time and I have also travelled around the world twice and have experienced many things that my peers have not.
During this period of uncertainty, I spoke with a very close friend of mine back in the UK who had just started a new and exciting role and explained how I felt and all of my worries about not having achieved the things we are supposed to.
She said, “Do you really think we have it all figured out? I don’t have a clue what I am doing and I don’t know where I am going. I’m just doing it”.
And was my final loop of the rollercoaster. I had overcome my fear of the unknown and my uncertainty of the 20’s to sit back and appreciate where I am right now and to relax as this decade comes to a full stop and you can finally lift that heavy bar from you and step out into your thirties having achieved some of what you wanted to achieve.
And as I step off this rollercoaster ride knowing that veryone else on it is feeling the same, I can’t help but wonder what ride of ‘unachievements’ I’ll choose to get on next. And that’s the exciting part.
