Your 20s generally start out strong; you are young, you know it, and there seems to be no limit to your energy and optimism.

At first, college can be pretty hard around midterms and finals, but you secretly know that you’re at the most carefree point in your life.

Time works differently in your early 20s: somehow you can sleep while it’s light but are always busy when it’s dark.

Napping is the best thing ever, and since you aren’t attached to a desk for nine hours a day, you can totally nap whenever you want. This won’t happen again until retirement.

Trouble is, you have no money, and you won’t for quite some time.

Then comes graduation and the immediate need to get a job.

When you do finally get that first real job, the job that is actually in your chosen field (or is chosen field-adjacent), you feel a bit like this.

Even though your days look pretty much like this.

And it feels kind of good to start buying actual furniture and appliances, and not living off of stuff you find in alleys or inherited from your parents.

Then comes the first wave of friends getting married, which is weird because you remember them from way back when.

Even weirder is when people you know start having kids. Hey wait, weren’t you all just in school? It’s cute, because babies are cute, but it really makes you realize how old you are. Ouch.

Your age keeps going up and up and up, which is really freaky. Ew, is that a wrinkle? Yeah, it’s a wrinkle.

Inside you still sort of feel like this.

But even though you’re a real (reluctant) grown up now, you’ll always be a Disney kid at heart.

Posted 7 years Ago