20 truths I wish I knew in my 20s
Because now I’m qualified to drop them, right? 💣
In my 20s, I’ve come across many articles and social media posts along the lines of “[X] truths I wish I knew when I was in my [younger age group].” Or “[X] lessons I learned the hard way in my [younger age group] so you don’t have to.”
Every one of them a promise of wisdom encoded into a convenient listicle. Secrets that a younger person simply would not have unlocked yet, because reasons.
I’m always a skeptic, but admittedly, have been click-baited by a few of them in the earlier half of my 20s, in moments when I felt particularly lost. Yes, these articles typically target the lost and confused. Which is a lot of people.
I don’t remember a single thing from any of the ones I scanned through, but I’ve always wanted to write one myself*, because reasons.
Now that I’m in my 30s, I finally have the right qualifications—measured by arbitrary units of time since my birth—to unlock this oddly specific achievement.
So here goes, in no particular order, the 20 truths I wish I knew in my 20s:
Life is a series of inflection points, where your decisions—to one extent or another—impact what you move towards.
There are no right decisions.
Stay here. A million thoughts can’t change the past nor predict the future.
Age is truly just a number. But it’s a number that can be—all at once—an integer, a fraction, a percentage, a variable, and sometimes an outlier.
Listen to yourself. At least more than you listen to other people.
Time is precious. Waste it wisely. Or don’t, and accept the consequences.
Sit with it. Whatever it is. Or don’t, and accept the consequences.
Things are pretty fucked.
Everything is temporary.
Don’t: Trust people on the internet who proclaim to have things figured out, like women who write Substack posts titled “20 truths I wish I knew in my 20s”. She might only deliver on 50% of her promised wisdom, because she wrote it as half a joke while lying around in her backyard hammock at 7pm on a Thursday, forgetting she was eating a popsicle, so it literally flopped onto her lap, causing her to swear at nobody in particular under her breath. And therefore she is not to be trusted.
Do: Read #5 again.
If you’re in your 20s, you’re not gonna remember a single thing from this list.
And that is okay.
Many important things have to be experienced, not told through some words.
Experience the experience. Stay with it. Or don’t, and accept the consequences.
*When I said I’ve always wanted to write a listicle like this myself, it was… how can I put this nicely? It was a lie! The truth is that 5 minutes before writing this, I was deep in an IG doom scroll spiral and saw a carousel post that started with “I just turned 35. If you’re in your 20s, read this.” I didn’t read it (because I’m not in my 20s!) but I did swipe once and noticed that it was too verbose for my liking. Then I wrote this on a whim. No offence to that guy, though. I’m sure he’s a cool human being. Actually, I should thank him for leading me here eventually, to this footnote.