20 Uncomfortable Moments That Actually Mean You’re Growing In Your 20s

1. Not getting the job that you’ve always wanted. Adulthood teaches you that this world is not a wish-granting factory, and the only way to get everything you want it to keep working and trying. Remember: there is no success story that just happened overnight and if you failed right now, it doesn’t mean that you will never get what you want for the rest of your life.

2. Realizing that you majored in the wrong area back in college because your current job is not related to it at all. Truthfully, the most important thing is not the major itself, but it’s the way of thinking that you get from college. In the end, nothing that you’ve learned is useless.

3. Losing friends and cutting off those toxic people out of your life. There is no need for you to feel guilty. Your well-being is more important than anything else and you will meet countless people who will treat you right along the way. Sometimes, you need to put self-love above all else and it’s okay.

4. Feeling lost and clueless if you haven’t found your passion yet. Finding who you truly are is a lifetime journey, but eventually, you will find your passion. Keep on looking and be brave enough to try new things every now and then. Be fearless.

5. Making (the same) mistakes all over again. At least making mistakes means that you’re brave enough to try something. In your 20s make the best out of your mistakes, learn from them, back up again, and repeat until you know what’s right for you.

6. Spending time on social media just to comparing your life to others. It’s normal to want to know where you stand compared to others. But nobody’s life is as perfect as their Instagram feed, so try your best not to compare your life to someone else’s. You are enough.

7. Questioning your past relationship which didn’t work out. You thought that everything went well and felt perfect in the beginning and then suddenly, they burned the bridge and left you behind. But when they’ve decided to leave, never chase them. Don’t ever go back to what broke you.

8. Failing at something you’re good at. Having failures is part of your learning process and it doesn’t mean that you’re going backwards; it only means that you grow to be better.

9. Missing your loved ones. It’s okay to reach them out and tell them that you miss them. Having a strong support system is one of the most important things in your 20s and reaching out to your loved ones will help you figure out this life.

10. Regretting some decisions that you’ve and being haunted by the ‘what if’-s. There is no right or wrong in life, there is only consequence and in every consequence, there will be something to learn. Never regret anything because at one time it was exactly what you wanted.

11. Remembering the memories that won’t happen twice. As you grow older, everything is changing and it’s okay to realize that some moments won’t happen again. You don’t need to experience that twice—there are new experiences waiting and your past experiences were nothing but the things which shaped you to become who you are.

12. Letting other people down. You weren’t born to make everyone happy and it’s not your responsibility to fix other people. People will always have something to say about you, but it’s your own choice to listen to them or otherwise.

13. Struggling to deal with anxiety and getting tired of the uncertainty. Having anxiety is part of survival. But, truthfully, nobody knows what they’re doing anyway, so just live the life as it is.

14. Trying to heal yourself from disappointment, rejection, or broken heart.

15. And struggling to move on. Take as much time as you need to heal yourself, let them go, and move on. Don’t deny the pain and feel it until you could live with it each day. As cliché as it sounds, it’s okay to not be okay and it’s normal to feel the hurt.

16. Getting tired of finding the one and losing the faith of meeting your soulmate. As you grow older, you’ll be realistic and you will start to understand that the one will eventually come at the right time, when both of you are ready.  

17. Not being able to forgive those people who hurt you. True forgiveness comes as time goes by, so don’t force it to happen. But, little do you realize, it’s actually harder to forgive yourself rather than forgive them.

18. Canceling those appointments and letting go of “FOMO.” As you get busier each day, you will start to notice the importance of having a time on your own and it’s okay to be left out. You will understand that you don’t need to do everything all at once.

19. Not giving a shit to the things you can’t control. In your 20s, as life is getting more complicated, you will start to differentiate between the things you can control and otherwise. And you start to realize the 5 by 5 rules: If it’s not gonna matter in 5 years, you won’t spend more than 5 minutes thinking about it.

20. Reading a self-help article like this and having the feeling that you’ve messed up. Life in your 20s is all about messing. And it’s okay if you don’t know how to live right, because all of us are confused anyway. Life in your 20s is about nothing but self-love and when you’ve filled yourself with self-love, you will make better choices.

At the end of the day, your 20s will be just fine.