In your twenties, you think that you’ll become this badass woman who wears a matching trouser-suit and goes for cocktails at swanky bars on the weekend. Well, that’s what I expected to happen for me. I thought that once I’d graduated, I’d be this really cool, ultra successful woman. When, in reality, I’m still a bit of a mess. And I don’t think I’m the only one.
So I have a job that could lead to a proper-adult-type-career. But I’m definitely not feeling like a proper adult. I still feel really confused, and slightly stress, about my future. Which is not any different to how I felt as a student. The only real difference is that now is that I do this worrying in an office rather than the library with my pals…
There is so much pressure to succeed. I feel a little bit lost, if I’m being honest. I’m not exactly sure what my priorities are right now. What should be my focus? Saving money for a house. Getting my foot on the ‘career ladder’. Travelling around the world. These are the things that we are supposed to start thinking about when we graduate, right? Well, I really want all of these things. But currently, I’m not even thinking of the future. I can’t, it is all a bit too overwhelming.
We are expected to move out into a flat with gloriously Pinterest-worthy interiors and get an incredible job, whilst still wanting to have fun and adventures. It is totally unrealistic. Rent is ridiculous (as we all know), so we are stuck with our parents. Jobs are hard to come by because apparently having a masters is the new degree. All while, we are supposed to have the spare cash to galavant and explore the world?
I sometimes feel like I’m the only 20-something-year-old who is struggling so much. All over social media, I see the glossy, hyped up versions of my peers’ lives. It’s easy to forget that my life probably looks just as glamorous and spectacular as theirs. Because we are all showing the best bits. Nobody is showing how difficult they are finding it after graduation. We don’t see their rubbish days when they feel like their job is a dead-end. How they’re now eating rice for a month so they could have that one trip away. Or that their parents are driving them crazy and all they want to do is move out.
In reality, nearly everyone my age probably feels this way. We are all just as lost as each other. Taking one day at a time. Enjoying ourselves and trying not to drown in a panic about the future. It’s easy to feel like you have achieve all these things in your twenties, but really we should just take everything at our own pace.
Right now, I’m living with my parents in Dubai. Yes Dubai, that place of glitz and glamour. But, I’m definitely not living some wild lifestyle. In reality, I work a normal job all week and spend a lot of the weekend watching Grey’s Anatomy in my pyjamas. I’m focusing on the career part as my priority right now, but who knows, next year my priority might be to travel and explore…
Let me know in the comments whether you’re feeling the same?
Hannah x
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