To My 20-Something Girls
I have younger sisters. I have a lot of younger girl cousins. I see them, so eager and excited and frankly, just jonesing for the next phase of their lives to hit. They want to be settled. They want to have it all figured out. They want to find their person. They want the house and the wedding and the career and the babies...they want it all and they want it tomorrow. So to you, my beautiful, smart, wonderful, albeit ignorantly blissful girls- let me to tell you this:
One day, you blink. You blink, and you wake up and a child is yelling "Mama" from across the hall. You have a gorgeous, shiny ring on your finger, and a kind, sweet human who sleeps next to you at night, who loves you despite your personal cocktail of mental instability (let's be real we all got one...some of us two). You make enough money to plan little vacations and go on dinner dates, and get Starbucks any day of the week if you'd like (though you tell yourself this will be the week you start making coffee at home.)
You blink, and it's there. I promise you, it is coming. But, I know the journey to that place is not always easy. The journey there is paved with worry. It is endless nights spent wondering: "when is it going to happen for me?" "When will it be my turn?" "Don't I deserve to be happy too?"
The road there is riddled with the potholes of bad first dates, being ghosted, getting your hopes up and wondering why the hell am I even wasting my time? It's covered in dead end jobs and jerk bosses. It's insufficient funds and bills paid late. It's crappy cars and endless repairs. It's broken hearts and ugly tears. It's 3,000 sad texts to your Mom. It's a handful of regrets and some drunken mistakes. It's crappy apartments and loud neighbors. It's living back at home. It's a lot of waiting and wondering and wishing time would just fly by and plop you down where you're meant to be.
But it can't, because you are already there. You are exactly where you are meant to be at this moment in time.
Because among these moments of uncertainty you're feeling you're also here to scatter your twenties with nights filled with laughter. Spend them downing cheap drinks and singing at the top of your lungs dancing in the company of people you love. Eating leftover pizza for breakfast, because you can. Seeing new cities and meeting new people and doing things that scare you. Jumping without always looking, not knowing exactly where you are going to land. It's the time for taking chances, both succeeding and impressively failing sometimes. Climbing ladders, getting promotions, finding your voice and using it. Chasing the things that make your eyes light up when you talk about them, finding out what matters to you and who you want to be. Being frivolous and spontaneous, and just a tad bit reckless, because now is your time and your right to be.
These are the years to make all the good kinds of mistakes (and probably a few of the not so great ones) and make choices simply because you " felt like it" in that moment. This is the time for meeting the wrong ones, collecting chapters of ridiculous stories, embracing the beauty of uncertainty and the anticipation of what's to come.
You are exactly where you are meant to be right now. You don't need to worry about if it will happen, it will. And, knowing you got in there and danced through all the good, bad, and ugly along the way makes it that much sweeter when it does. Believe that.