As I approach my 27th year it hits me that I am a 20-something. I have been out from under my parents roof for sometime now and so this transition that I realize I have been in for a few years is not the same as figuring out how to manage my money, how to pay bills, take care of myself, and how to cook for myself. No, this transition is different, it’s more of an internal shift that sometimes spreads into an external change too. It’s almost like a second puberty as much as it pains me to acknowledge it. It’s personal in that “my hormones are raging and I have hair in new places” kind of way, and it’s kind of embarrassing when people acknowledge that you are changing and evolving.
This second puberty, this 20-somethings evolution is big, and subtle at the same time. It’s a shift in priorities, it’s a realization that invincibility is not reality and that actions have consequences that each of us are responsible for.
I am realizing that how I look and what I wear matters in a different way. It may not be about fashion as much as it is what kind of person you are perceived to be and what opportunities in turn will be presented to you. How much pressure is that? . .conveying who you want to be and where you want to go all in one outfit each day!
I find myself in the company of people who have conversation less of the “he said/she said” and “you did what?!?!” variety and more what’s going on in the world. The question isn’t “what do you want to be when you grow up” but “where do you see yourself in 3 – 5 years” and “what’s your 10 year plan”.
I’m not saving up for a pair of really cute shoes or the perfect jeans but for a wedding! My monthly bills aren’t my Express or Victoria’s Secret credit cards but my health care and car insurance. My bills aren’t my bills anymore, they are “our” bills.
My immediate sense of a family unit isn’t my parents and siblings but my partner, our dog and our dream of children. I am responsible to this family that we chose to create out of love.
Politics do matter to me now. Maybe not as much as they will another 10 years from now, but I can honestly say I was invested in the last presidential election. The thought of someone like Sara Palin getting a serious foothold in our government scares me! I get fired up over the recent and seemingly never-ending political scandals and lies because I now feel that I am a part of this nation that is represented by these fools.
There are all of these shifts in priorities and an expansion in my perceived world as I meander through the later part of my 20s. I guess I am learning to look up more and see a larger world. I’m understand now that I am an adult and there is no one more responsible for my life, it’s quality, and what fills it than me. Let’s just see if it’s possible to make this evolution, this second puberty, a little more graceful.
