Why Growing Up Doesn't Have to Suck

Well, today is my birthday and while I know that most newly 20-year-olds are excited for that transition into adulthood, I am not. There is a certain security in being a teenager. A comfort in knowing that you have the ability to mess up because it will be dismissed for being "young & dumb." Now, I feel like I have full ownership of my life and that is terrifying. "Kashia, you're being so dramatic!"

"Your 20s are going to be some of the best years of your life."

"It isn't that different, honestly."

Maybe I'm just a Pessimistic Patty, but I call BS. I don't think I'm being dramatic at all! Actually, I feel like most people don't pay enough attention to this milestone. For most people, your twenties hold the largest amount of change in your life. People stop looking for boyfriends and start searching for husbands. You go from being a kid to obsessing over when you should have your first. The sky is the limit in your teens, but your twenties is generally the period when you discover what you are going to be chained down to for the rest of your life! How is that not a big deal?! How is everyone not terrified?!

Unfortunately, the reality is there is nothing I can do about it at this point, so I'm taking this opportunity to document all of the wonderful things that can come along with your twenties. (I'm doing this more for my own sanity than for anyone else.)

It's the perfect time to "find yourself." Let's be real, your teen years hold very little freedom. It's hard to decide who you want to be as a human being when you can't even decide when you can go to the restroom. Now that high school

is behind you, most people are thrown into "real-world" situations. Whether that be college, where you still have the stability of a school environment without a parent or principle monitoring your every move, or you go straight to work. These are the experiences that force you to decide what your interests really are without an outward factor influencing your opinion. Child, go out and have fun! Figure out what you like and what you want in life! The world is your oyster.

You can drink (legally, anyway!!!) Personally, I'm not a drinker, but a large majority of my friends are. Not that I'm judging, but as the forever-sober friend, I'm hoping the novelty of alcohol stays in the teens. I think that once people are old enough to drink, they'll stop acting like it's the coolest thing that's ever happened to anyone in the history of the world...ever. (This was clealy a more selfish one, but this entire post is for me so deal with it.)

R.E.S.P.E.C.T I'm joking. No one respects you in your early twenties.

You shape you. Kind of playing off of the first topic, you have the opportunity to become whoever you want to be. Don't let the fear of failure or disappointing people hold you back fro living the life that you want to live. Your twenties is the time your chance to learn to say "NO" and there is nothing anyone can do about it because you're grown-a**-adult and what you say goes!

That's all I got for now. And I guess being a year older is better than not being a year older, if you know what I mean. (Dead.. For those who didn't catch it.) Keep your head up and good luck adulting!

God Bless,

Kashia Versae