
Don’t do what I did.
Back in my 20s, a typical afternoon found me nibbling on a cheese sandwich between classes I taught. I would lecture about George Orwell for half an hour while a bunch of under-achieving young adults glowered at me and texted under their desks.
Then I would drag myself to a date.
On the way to my date, someone would hit on me. I wouldn’t enjoy the attention. The date wouldn’t go well. Then I would go home and make myself a coffee, and stay up all night reading something that would make absolutely no difference in my life whatsoever.
Sounds like a blast, right?
My life is proof that you don’t need a drug or drinking problem to screw things up. Sometimes you just make a bunch of bad decisions. Maybe it’s because your parents raised you wrong, or you grew up under the cloud of abuse. That part doesn’t matter. This part does: You wise up. You develop a little self-awareness, and make some changes.
Things I wish I did in my 20s. Post continues after video.
If I had a chance, here’s what I would do differently:
1. I would’ve stopped rushing through life.
When you’re like me, you rush through your 20s.
You act like you can’t wait for them to be over. You work all the time. You don’t take breaks. You barely sleep. All you care about is padding your resume and inflating your scrawny salary with worthless side gigs. You spread your time and attention so thin, you can’t focus on anything in front of you. You’re always waiting for a big break that never comes.
2. I would’ve stopped judging myself for every breakup.
When you’re 20 something, every breakup feels like a personal failure. You just weren’t good enough for them.
You spend days wondering what it was exactly. Maybe you need to lose weight. Maybe you need to travel more. Maybe you need to be more successful, or funnier, or more interesting. Maybe it’s your hair, or your makeup, or your clothes.
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