I'm Feeling 22

You heard it here folks, as the good 'ol Taylor Swift has sung, "I'm feeling 22." Which means today, June 30th, is my birthday. But am I really feeling 22? It feels like just yesterday that I was waving goodbye to my teenhood and turning 20. Now I know, 22 is not old. My life is not fleeting away from me anytime soon. But I feel like for the age that I am, I should be doing more and be farther than where I'm currently at.

At this point of my life, my largest accomplishment just happened two months ago when I graduated college and got my four year degree. But thinking before that happened? Well, nothing too monumental. I was accepted into an advanced art program when I was 6, I got third place in my town's writing competition at 15, got my drivers license at 18 and got onto the Dean's List a multitude of times throughout college. A few months back, you could have asked me what I was planning on doing with my future and I could tell you right then and there what my five year plan was. But now, I hardly know anything past 2018.

I find, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this thought, that society has this overlooming pressure to already be on to bigger and better things once you are in your early twenties. We have been drilled to remember that the "microchondria is the powerhouse of the cell" and "the FitnessGram pacer test is a multistage aerobic capacity test that progressively gets more difficult as it continues." You don't learn how to do anything really outside of your basic everyday classes. Taxes? Forget it. Basic repairs within the home or on a car? Don't even bother. I'm shocked I survived through college, but now I just feel like I'm wondering even more than ever

As I am 22 now, I would like to reflect a little on where I've been, who I am now, and where I still have left to go and grow. On the left is me on my first ever day of school... the big year of Kindergarten. On the right we have me on my final day ever at school, my graduation from Winona State University. These two pictures contain the same girl, yet with different dreams, goals and aspirations. In Kindergarten, I wanted to be an artist, ballet dancer or veterinarian. My biggest concern was probably losing my crayons or being stumped on what I wanted to play pretend as that night. Now, I want to be a social media manger or event coordinator. My biggest concern now is not being able to show my friends and family that I can be what I said I planned to be. Especially now more than ever since now I have my degree. I want others to be proud of me and what I can and hopefully accomplish.

There is something I've realized and I hope others who are feeling like this will also realize. Everyone is on a different clock. We all follow different paths. Just because someone graduated college at 21 and you graduate at 34 does not change anything. I got my license at 18 where most of the people I knew got it at 16. I still got it, just not when society deems as the "right" time. But to speak the truth, there is no "right" time. We go at our own paces and get to certain points not at all the same time. I may not have a job within my degree two months after my college graduation, but who cares? It should only matter to myself. As long as I'm happy with where I'm at, nothing else should matter. As I turn a year older, this is the mindset I slowly want to adapt into my life. It is going to take some time, but in the end, it will be all worth it.

#Birthday #Millennials #Advice #Life