Now I've Had the Time of my Life

I was chatting with a friend the other day, we were remembering how confident and fearless we were when we were younger. If we had a crush we thought they just don’t know that they like us yet (which was true about 99.9% of the time!). Yet now, we are the ones doubting ourselves and overthinking our every move. Our 99.9% success rate has plummeted significantly. What happened? Our twenties, that’s what happened.

It is often said that your twenties are the best time of your life. Not to be blunt, but what planet are these people living on? Sure I’ve had some good times, but it’s mostly been one giant clusterf*ck. Maybe one day I’ll look back on this time fondly and laugh about it, but right now I’m just laughing so I won’t cry. I have somehow navigated my parents’ divorce, two university degrees and three toxic relationships. Now I find myself floundering about aimlessly in this weird abyss we call our twenties.

The highlight reel:

-Travelled to Greece, Colombia, Dominican Republic, and England.

-Bought my first new car

-Moved into my first apartment

-Graduated university

-Landed my first big girl job

The blooper reel:

-My parents’ divorce

-Toxic relationship #1 with a grown adult man whose mom still liked to cuddle with him in the morning... What’s that? Did you say Oedipus Complex? Also, have you ever had a boat named after you? - I have. On second thought, maybe I will laugh about this.

-Toxic relationship #2 - What was supposed to be an international love affair for the ages ended with my apartment locks being changed. Little did the locksmith know that he would be returning for toxic relationship #3.

-Now, insert one year of therapy because, by now, I’m sufficiently messed up.

-Toxic relationship #3 with the king of mansplaining. This guy has a special skill, not only could he mansplain to women but, yes you guessed it... to men as well.

-The good, the bad and the ugly of online dating. Let’s save that for another day.

Suffice to say, my twenties are not the way I envisioned them. It’s like that time in Mykonos when I thought a donkey ride would be like that scene from The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants; only the little, old Greek man let the donkey loose. Tourists were dodging out of the way, and I was fearing for my life.

As crazy as it sounds, I can honestly say that I wouldn’t change a single thing; well... maybe the donkey ride. Ideally, I would have navigated all of this with the flawless finesse of Carrie Bradshaw, but instead, I was drinking a bottle of red wine while listening to Alanis Morrisette and ugly crying. The one thing that I do know for certain is that I have experienced incredible growth. So perhaps my twenties have not been the time of my life, but they have transformed me for the better. And with that, I’ll leave you with this thought: “Maybe you have to let go of who you were to become who you will be” - Carrie Bradshaw.