Birthdays, to me, are about reflection. They represent the day you came into the world and each year they mark another year of your life gone. You gain certain privileges because of this one day, and you are expected to magically mature when the clock strikes midnight. For example, I’m currently writing this on my last day, in my last hour of being 20. In less than an hour on October 23rd, 2020 I will be of legal drinking age in the US. For me, nothing has changed. But to everyone else and the law, I’m suddenly different. With being more isolated than ever and being in my senior year of college now I’ve had more time to reflect on where I’m at and I’ve had to seriously think about my next steps. So, here are 20 things I learned while being 20:
- Being single is very much a choice, not always a conscious one but a choice nonetheless.
- Wanting to be successful to accomplish my own goals and wanting to be successful in order to live up to other people’s expectations are not the same thing.
- I have no idea what I want to do with my life but I’m going to be okay.
- I have serious commitment and attachment issues and I need to actively work on them.
- Everyone is flawed and they should be allowed to make mistakes.
- Your beliefs mean nothing if you don’t act accordingly.
- Even though I like being by myself and not leaving my house, I still miss seeing other people and going to classes no matter how stressed out that makes me.
- I need to get a backbone because when you’re introverted people think that they can just walk all over you.
- My ultimate dream isn’t to have a successful career and a doctorate, it’s to run away and leave everything behind.
- I’m not any less intelligent because I spend my time reading romance novels.
- I like the way I look now no matter what I’m wearing, what day it is, or how uneven the right and left sides of my body are.
- Being the single girl who dresses in all pink and watches romantic comedies on Valentine’s Day is a much better way to spend my time.
- Whether I have good news or bad news, my dad is the first and only person I want to tell about it and he was the same way with his mom.
- My dad and I are much more alike than I ever realized.
- How to style my curls.
- Iron supplements are my life savers.
- What are no-brainers to me, are world-changing ideas to someone else.
- My nose does in fact work with my face.
- How to crochet a hat.
- I used to love Peter Pan, I mean he never grew up, he could fly and he could whisk me away to Neverland where I could do all of those things that he could do. But, the thing about Peter Pan is that in spite of all of that, he ends up alone. I really don’t want that.
