10 Meaningful Words Every 20-Something Ends Up Redefining

As I approach the final year of my twenties, I can’t help but look back on my life and all the changes and growth my twenties brought. I feel like I am a different person than I was five years ago, actually, I feel like I am a different person than I was two years ago. My definition of everything has changed, my heart changed and my mind surely did change. The twenties are fun and exciting, but they are also confusing and painful. However, if lived right or wrong depending on how you look at it, they can offer valuable lessons, and mistakes you can avoid in your thirties. As you walk down that road, you will have to stop and redefine some things.

1. Happiness: Redefine happiness to revolve around achieving goals, life-long experiences, and genuine relationships. Look for more long-term and intrinsic happiness instead of short-term pleasures. Your happiness is defined by what inspires you and what keeps your soul and mind rested not by what keep you up at night.

2. Love: Love takes a new direction in your late twenties. You no longer try to find someone who is all about fun and games, you want someone to listen to the words you whisper, and understand the depth in your eyes. You want someone who will put out the fire burning within you and assures you that they want to be part of your book, not just a sentence in your chapter.

3. Beauty: The definition of beauty goes beyond looks. You find grace beautiful, you find maturity sexy, you find responsibility gorgeous and most importantly; you find honesty jaw-dropping. Even the way you define beauty for yourself changes. You are no longer focused on how you should look or what you should wear, you are working on beauty that has no expiration date.

4. Friendship: Friends become your second family, you are more interested in friendships that last and stand the test of time. You look for friends you can call at 5 am and friends you can confide in. You don’t trust as much people as you used to and you don’t respect as much people as you used to. Your friends are your sanctuary and you make sure to keep it safe.

5. Success: Success becomes a journey not a destination. It becomes in the balance and harmony of your life rather than how much money you make and what kind of car you drive. It is not the noise around you but the stillness within your heart. It is not in the quantity of things in your life but the quality of it.

6. Fun: You no longer feel the need to be everywhere, or attend every party you are invited to. Fun is defined by who you are with and how happy you are when you are with them. It doesn’t matter if it’s at home or at fancy restaurant. Fun is multiplied when it is simplified.

7. Attraction: You redefine what you want to attract and who you want to attract. You no longer try to attract what is popular or what is easy or what makes sense. You attract what you truly desire, you attract who you see a future with, you attract wander that doesn’t leave you wondering if it was attractive.

8. Strength: You redefine strength by how far you’ve come, by the moments of weakness you overcame, by the smiles you fought through your tears. Your strength is in the fact that you are still standing on your own two feet.

9. Time: You lose your attachment to time as you go on. You are no longer forcing yourself to do something or find someone by a certain age. You cherish your time and you make sure you spend it by doing things that will make you grow and around people who make it fly. You make time for your priorities, and you make sure time doesn’t pass you by.

10. Yourself: Probably the most important redefinition of all–YOU. As you grow older, you will realize that you will have to do a lot of things alone. You will have to be your own hero and you will have to pick yourself up sometimes. You will redefine what you care about, what you are chasing, what you are believing in, what you are looking forward to and what you want to achieve. You will redefine how you see yourself and how you want to be seen. You will redefine how you want to spend the rest of your life, and you will redefine whether or not you want your life to have meaning and if you want the world to understand it.