By Kay Wicker
Lifestyle Editor
The other day I stumbled upon a post on Thought Catalog.com titled “15 Ways 20 Something’s Ruin their Twenties.” When you see a headline like that you quickly divert your attention. Out of all 15 I think the biggest three I see being extremely problematic for my friends and myself included would be as follows: #3.) Staying involved in destructive relationships. #7.) Putting an excessive amount of value on attention received via social networks. #11.) Passing on spontaneous adventures and the opportunity to experience new things. The entire list is worth reading and considering, but of the 15 I was practically turned on to these three points.
As far as number three goes, I don’t know how many times I find myself consoling friends who are in a relationship that makes no sense to the outside. It’s completely fallen apart, there’s no healthy energy going towards it anymore, yet for whatever reason they won’t just end it. Kind of a bleak topic, I know, with Valentine’s Day just passing, but it’s true. I think a lot of young people fall into these relationships that work and are wonderful at first but soon fall victim to fear instead of love. Life alone can be just as special as life with someone to share it with, sometimes even more so. We grow when we’re apart.
I think relationships that follow us from teens to adulthood can sometimes be stunting for us. We try to force ourselves to still be to each other what we once were, when in reality we’re tying to grow into different people, sometimes those different people aren’t going to congeal like they used to and that’s perfectly okay to accept. Hard, but okay.
Number seven is a personal problem of mine, I know for sure. I always envy my friends that don’t Facebook’s because I seriously think they have a far more enriched social life than people are so caught up in it. I will admit when I make a status I think is witty or Instagram a photo that captures a moment I think is noteworthy if it doesn’t receive the amount of attention I think it should, it devalues it for me. This is ludicrous no matter how many people like a photo it shouldn’t change the fact that he moment it’s capturing is still beautiful in our memory.
I remember one night recently I was going to link something on my friend’s wall when I remembered she didn’t have a Facebook I had to wait till I saw her next to tell her about it and show her what I had intended to link. In a way I appreciate my interactions with her more because they’re only face to face. It’s been said many times over that we lose something when we text or Tweet each other, but no matter how tried it is extremely true.
Number eleven is one I promised myself a long time ago that I’d never do. Spontaneous adventures are the only ones I’m about sometimes. There is nothing more awesome than waking up with an idea for your day and going to bed having experienced something completely different. Well, if it’s a good different. I remember one day over the summer I was in my apartment when a friend invited me to get sushi.
My first instinct was to say no, because I had never had sushi before, I didn’t know the rest of her friends, and blah blah. Finally I said, forget it no I’m going. Not only did I meet such a great group of girls, but I discovered a love for sushi and nice little place to get it while I’m at school. I think we take ourselves too seriously sometimes, and as my mom always says “You’re young. You’re not tired of anything because you haven’t seen anything. So go be footloose and fancy free.”
Our 20s are supposed the bridge between the teen years into our adult years. We’re allowed to make mistakes, break hearts, change careers, move to new cities, travel, find God only to find another, find our passions, and never settle. Let’s change that old saying of the youth being wasted on the young, revel in your 20s guys!
Here’s a link to the article: http://thoughtcatalog.com/2012/15-ways-20-somethings-ruins-their-twenties