Reframing The Toxic Twenties

As someone fast approaching 21, why is it that I feel I’ve already lost my twenties and I’m nearing mid-life crisis? Twenty is that liminal age where you’re an adult, and expected to act like one, whilst also being told you are young and should make the most of, what should be, the best years of your life. But I think what’s important to remember is the ‘best years of your life’ doesn’t look the same for everyone, that’s the great thing about it being your life!

When you see an influencer’s day-in-the-life routine involving waking up with the sunrise and running a marathon before your alarm has even gone off, odds are that’s not the everyday reality. And if it is, that’s their life not yours! This toxic productivity trend, that social media endorses, only serves to make the majority of us feel like we are not making the most of our twenties. It inspires guilt for sleeping in until 11 and, whilst I’m not encouraging us to sleep our lives away, your twenties will not be worse off because you hit snooze.

My advice, as cliché as it sounds, is to do what makes you happy. That way, you

can’t have regrets if you know that a marathon before breakfast is not for you.

Simultaneously, try new things, that’s what your twenties are for – you might find something that makes you unexpectedly happy (and if it doesn’t, that’s okay too!).

The pressure to always be working towards setting up your future life in your

twenties are so damaging; life doesn’t start when you have a stable career, house, partner etc. It has started now and if we waste it wishing for someone else’s life, we’ll forget we have our own to live.

I want to travel, save money, know what direction my life is heading in and we can’t compare ourselves to other people who may look to achieve goals at different times to us. Social media is a world where we advertise the most desirable aspects of our lives, just remember that the undesirable parts coexist offline.

I’m probably not telling you anything you don’t already know, but I know I could do with a little reminder sometimes. I don’t think there is any such thing as a ‘typical’ twenty-year-old and reframing these years as exciting, rather than daunting, creates a much healthier lifestyle, regardless of if you run marathons or not.