Twenties

  A friend of mine turned 20 yesterday. It got me to thinking about my twenties and how they've treated me. Your twenties are such a cool experience--that decade of your life when, at the beginning of it, you realize you don't have it all figured it out and (hopefully) by the end of it, you do.
  I feel like, as teenagers, we think we know it all. We know where we're going to college and what we want out of life. We think we know who we are when, really, we're just  the person our parents and limited life experiences have molded us to be. We were so wrong. No one can fully prepare you for the next ten years to come.
  Typically when you turn 20, you  know "what you're going to be when you grow up" because you've spent the last two years in school working towards that goal. You have your old safety net of back-home high school friends as well as your new-found college friends. You've been living on your own for two years and you're discovering you who are and who you want to be.
  Then in your early to mid-twenties, you are hurled into the adult world. You're a career (wo)man now. If you're anything like me, that's going to be an adjustment. I am a pretty responsible person, but going from having bills paid for me to budgeting rent, utilities, & insurance threw me off my game. I was a penny-pincher for fear I wouldn't have enough money to live on since I only got paid once a month. Then there's the career. It takes a while to see yourself as an adult. There I was, 23 and a teacher. Hundreds of sets of parents entrusted their most valuable possessions to me. Me!!! Admittedly,there were days when I'd look over at the room full of children working quietly on their worksheet and I'd realize that I was the authority figure in the room. Those kids would look to me in the event of an emergency. It was at that point I'd go into a mental mini-panic attack and want to run out of the room. I'm glad to say that stopped after my first year.
   Once you've adjusted to the adult world and you're in your mid to late-twenties, you start to go through another evaluation process. You start to ask yourself: Am I in the place I want to be? Am I in the place I should be? Is what I'm currently doing what I want to do for the rest of my life? Is what I thought I wanted what I actually want? You start thinking about even more grown up decisions like buying house and life insurance.
  Your twenties are so serious yet so fun! You are coming into your own and making a life for yourself. So for those of you that are in your early twenties, get excited! The best is yet to come.