If You’re in Your Twenties, You’re Already Wrong
“Just print out your CV, walk into an office building, and ask if there are any job openings.” Says every parent who has no idea how applying for jobs works in 2025. In this digital age, however, having a job itself is becoming less and less appealing. People who are in their mid-twenties right now are overwhelmed with everything they’re “supposed” to be doing, and you’re supposed to be doing it all at once.
Young people are supposed to be homeowners, after all, their parents were married with children when they were 25. Also, when I say “homeowner” I mean by 25, you’re supposed to be purchasing a home for yourself to live in, not the condo you bought in Spain when you were 22 that you flipped into an AirBnb. You do have a source of passive income through a rental property… right?
It’s not just being a homeowner or getting a good job. You’re only this young once, quit your 9-5, become a digital nomad, and travel the world! While backpacking Southeast Asia, you should also be aggressively saving for your retirement, setting up a financial future for yourself, getting married, and eating enough protein. At the same time, you can’t take your money with you and these are the years of personal growth so it’s best to stay single. You should move abroad and experience new things and at the exact same time be mindful that your parents are getting older too and you won’t get these years with them back.
You’re supposed to be completely financially independent, debt-free, have traveled to 40+ countries, be steady in a career, have a long-term partner, a post-graduate degree, two hobbies, a side-hustle that has potential to one day replace your 9-5, a healthy group of friends, and deep understanding of every single vitamin and supplement you’re obviously taking every morning.
Everytime I try to “settle down” I always end up unsettling myself because I’m forcing something that isn’t there. People spend their lives miserable because they think they have to do everything all at once. Moreover, we are raised to think that 25 is old because that’s when the anti-wrinkle cream starts popping up on the Instagram explore page. Do we all just die at 30? What happens after 40? There aren’t rules and regulations to life, of course, but it’s hard to know what to prioritize when “prioritize everything” and learn how to bake sourdough from scratch at the same time and being pushed in our faces.
All the time, products are being shoved in my face trying to solve a problem I didn’t know I had. There’s nail strengthening oil and lip pumping gloss. Everyday I’m exhausted just from reading commercials. It makes a girl want to run away to a farm and never see another billboard or advertisement again.
There’s no correct way to live, and that’s what makes it so hard for people when they leave school. There’s no grade or measurement which makes things like follower counts and website traffic more important than they actually are. If we can’t find ways to measure how good we are doing in life, the brain will search for it in arbitrary ways that don’t actually mean anything. There’s so many things to do in this world I constantly find myself in a state of decision paralysis. I could book a flight to the Philippines tomorrow or stick around and see if this country I moved to 10 days ago is the right fit. I could go skydiving or to Paris for a day trip or spend my life savings at the grocery store.
You have to do deep conditioning treatments (but not everyday), see the world, have a job, rescue a dog, volunteer, have healthy relationships, go to the gym, eat your greens, run out to every protest because “this is our future” even though it’s a world our parents created, get 8 hours of sleep, take a pottery class, and also be sure to carve out enough time for self-discovery.
Oh, and did I mention you’re supposed to be doing all of this while training for a marathon?
