Hello sunshine. It’s been a while! Though I’m not sure how many of you were avidly waiting for this post, I’d like to apologize for the derailment of my post schedule. Life has been chaotic to say the least!
If you read my last blog post you know I was struggling through some complicated feelings surrounding the change ahead of me as graduation approached. Well, I am now almost a month post grad and it feels like life hasn’t stopped moving, not even for a second! In fact, I can’t quite believe it’s only been a month because it feels like another lifetime ago entirely. I KNOW, that seems like a rather dramatic exaggeration, but I think I’m entitled to be a little dramatic every now and again.
In the week following graduation I said goodbye to some of my most cherished friends, hosted a heartwarmingly large amount of family, and landed my first job. So you can see why it feels like a different lifetime ago… I find it mind boggling really to think that 28 days ago I was sitting in a class with 19 of my peers planning for our futures and now I’m living in it.
I’m sure you’re wondering where this is going… and I’m getting there I promise. In the last couple of months I’ve been told one too many times to cherish my 20’s because they go by before you know it (see now that seems like a dramatic exaggeration). 10 years doesn’t exactly seem like limited time to me… so why were all these older adults so set on completely freaking me out about my impending future when as far as I was concerned I had all the time in the world?
Well, since graduation, and starting my first big-girl job I’ve cancelled an unacceptable amount of plans with friends because who has the time or energy to socialize after a 9-5? And that’s when it hit me. This is what they mean. This is what they mean when they say your 20’s go by before you know it.
Before you know it you’re too tired to go out after work, and too busy to meet with a friend for lunch, and the one day you can muster up the energy to socialize, no one else seems to be available on account of their own busy schedules. It occurred to me then, that this is the mundane routine your life becomes as an adult when you don’t appreciate the gift of time.
You can’t get time back. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. It haunts me to think of all the laughs and sweet memories I stripped myself of for every time I cancelled a plan. (Genesis if you’re reading this I promise a gleepover is in our future). I hate to think that just because I have to adult for real now I have to miss out on all the fun there is to be had. So I say make the plans and SHOW UP. Show up even when you’re “too busy” or “too tired”… or “too broke” (money comes back… experiences don’t).
Don’t let your life become a boring pattern where work takes center stage. You are never going to be this young again, so don’t take it for granted. Mostly, don’t take your people for granted and don’t take time for granted. Show up for each other, love each other, rally for each other, and find ways to make the most of the time you get with one another.
There will be plenty of time to cancel plans when you’re in your 30’s…
