Tuesday, September 30, 2008

All Grown Up?

In my new placement, a lot of my co-workers are in their mid-twenties. They all seem to have their lives so put together. They have homes, significant others, some have children, and they have lives outside of work. They seem to know what they want out of their lives and more than that, they seem to know themselves.
And then there's me. I'm a few weeks away from 23. That means I am almost closer to 25 than to 20. I'm not that far apart in age from the people I am shadowing for school. So... when am I going to have everything magically put together and figured out? When do the boyfriend and the fabulous life outside of work come along? When do I figure out what I want in life and how to get it? When do I stop being awkward and shy and start being the self-knowing, confidant woman I should be?
Am I behind everyone else my age? Or do we all just grow up at different speeds? Or are some people just better at faking it than others?

2 comments:

Christy Lou Who said...

I was worrying about this today too! I like to think everyone is a straight-up faker and no one has it together in their twenties. A prof of mine in undergrad told me she didn't feel like she knew what she was doing until she was 33. She also justified this by saying "well, you know, Jesus was 33". So there you go.

Anonymous said...

I honestly don't think it's that on one knows what they're doing, or going to do. It's more that there are just so many paths and options at our feet at this time.

Over time, the whole maturity thing suddenly kicks in and suddenly people realize just what matters most to themselves. All of a sudden there's focus and a definite sense of purpose. The rest of it just becomes white noise in the background.

Thing is, if you think about it, after hitting that magic point life circumstances don't really change all at once: just about everything is the same.

What's the difference then? One word: perspective.

All is well with you. Just breathe.