On Surviving Your 20s

Chapter Ten.

Page 289 of 365.

On Surviving Your 20s.


When you are a kid, life is about fun, laugh, cookie, and more fun.
When you are in junior high, life is about experimenting and experiencing new things.
When you are in your teenage years, life is about love, heartbreak, friendship, parent issues, and more heartbreaks.

But as soon as you realize you're not a teen-ager anymore (and yes, 20 is not a teenager, d'oh), you are stumbling your way on finding out about life itself.

When you are in 20-something, life is about finding the reason why you exist.

I'm not an expert yet, but i think i can share some tips on surviving your 20s. (I'm 21, duh, it's like i'm experiencing 2 years of my 20s. I'm a soon-to-be expert, at least.)


1. Realize that time is ticking faster than you think

When you're in your 20, whether you're in college or in marketplace, life doesn't count as days, but as moments. Use your ultimate resources wisely. No, your ultimate resources is not money, it's time. You can lost your money and you can get it back. It doesn't apply for your time.

Stop procrastinating. Stop thinking you have unlimited resources of time. Truth: you might be young, but never be too young to die.

And stop lying that you do any good for yourself by taking a rest. Well, taking a rest is good for your body but watching 8 hours straight Korean variety show is not. Go and make your momma proud.


2. It's time to answer the questions about life

As i mentioned earlier, 20-something is about answering the ultimate question: what are you going to do with your life?

Many people are having hard times answering it. They think that finding out your purpose means there is a sound from heaven telling you to do a great thing to change the world. While i believe there is some people who heard that sound from above, most of us can't wait for the God's whisper.

Deep down inside, you know what you have to do with your life. You're just scared to state it out loud. You're scared that you might not enjoy it. Well, guess what? You can always change your life's direction.

Find out what you love to do and start from there. And please, use your brain. No matter how happy you are when you are shopping around the malls, you can not have swiping the visa card as your calling.


3. Eliminate

Now you know that time is ticking away and you have a calling for your life but now you wonder: how on earth i could possibly do all this stuff and maintaining my relationship with friends, family, and myself?

Simple: eliminate.

Just because you are doing it for years, doesn't mean you have to continually do it. If it doesn't make you happy, why bother? Your family dinner every Friday and meeting some relatives that just talking sh- about your life? Skip it. A bunch of friends who talk about others behind their back? Dump them. Your so-called me time that includes surfing on the internet all day long? Cancel it and go to bookstore instead.

You are responsible for your mental health. When you have a solid reason of not doing something, then don't do it. The only person you have to make him happy is yourself.


4. Be grateful

You live in the most-sophisticated era of human history. We have 4G internet, laptop, smartphone, airplane, and Girls' Generation. That should be enough.

Even so, you are doing better than half of the world population now. You are not in a war, you're alive, you can read, you have internet access to this awesome blog, you have friends and family eventhough some of them are annoying, and you have a shelter and food to eat. Now tell me how a heartbreak could ruin your life...


5. Enjoy life

Being in you 20s is being in your best years. I always thought that teenage year is your best time but it's not. You made stupid decisions on your teenage years. 20s are your second season of the teenage years and just like all the TV shows, second season is always the best.


Now, hit the life.