4 Reasons You Should Have No Worries In Your 20s

So. You’re a twenty something. You might’ve just graduated. Your salary might not be as high as you want it to be. You may have unfulfilled dreams. Welcome to the real world. You spend your days operating at a job you might or might not like. That is besides the point. What do you love? I worry every day about whether or not I’m fulfilling my aspirations or doing what I love. Perhaps I’ve watched the Steve Jobs Stanford graduation speech on Youtube too many times. But here are four reasons why you shouldn’t worry too much about your life.

1. Things are not as serious as they seem.

You are often stressed. Some of these stressors might be official, such as taxes. Some might be unofficial, such as that weird story you told in the office that nobody laughed at. Either way, all of these things will fade away with time and not matter at all (if you paid your taxes that is). Trust that who you are as a person perseveres above all else and that the holistic you will trump the bits and pieces of awkwardness you may spew out. You are who you are.

2. The things that truly matter will unveil themselves as the difficult parts of your life unfold.

Have you ever eaten a double cheeseburger at McDonald’s? Of course you have. Have you ever noticed how delicious the center of the burger is compared to the edges? That is like life. Life has middles and it has edges. Life is also a rollercoaster, with peaks and valleys. You are riding this rollercoaster regardless of whether or not you signed up for it. You’re eating this double cheeseburger regardless of whether or not you bought it. Life is meant to be full of highs and lows and like double cheeseburgers.

3. You’re more talented than you believe you are.

I believe that every human being has a unique set of talents that are beyond the scope of measure. In our society, we value intelligence through aptitude tests and other means, but this narrows the capabilities of humanities to measurable traits like memory and math. Perhaps your genius does not yield as much money as you’d like. But maybe…our society simply does not value you enough…yet.

4. Your parents and true friends will love you anyways, and relationships are what matters.

I’ll tell you a secret. I had schizophrenia for a short period of time. This period of time led me to a lot of soul searching. Some of it was delusional, some of it led to hallucinations, and some of it was meaningful. I wrote a letter to my best friend in the midst of hearing voices telling me that I was friendless and alone, and he responded by saying “Those who see you differently or feel uncomfortable around you either have a damn good reason or they just weren’t good friends from the start.”

The people who know you and care about you will always be there, simple as that. If they’re not, then either it wasn’t meant to be or you did something damning. Either way, don’t worry. The things that matter will unveil themselves and the things that don’t will fade away with time.