The Real World: Twenty Somethings

Oft glamorized by Instagram and YouTube, the life of a twenty something is not as fun and is looks. It's not all college frat parties and Sunday brunches. The life of a real twenty something looks more like work, debt, and tears. Not everyone has the same journey, but in the all of 103 days since I became a twenty something, I'm starting to learn that what I've experienced is far more common than anything else. Not all of our twenty something stories are the same, but here's mine

(Did that feel kind of Law & Order-y to you too?)

My weekends consist of nights out, driving around with the windows down at midnight, and late night stops for dinner.  And by that I mean I work closing shifts and stay late to prep for the next days, drive home with the windows open to keep myself awake, and stopping at Wawa for a quick easy meal before I go to bed.

My room is a low key wreck, piles of laundry everywhere, garbage of granola bars and water bottles overflowing, piles upon piles of paper, and boxes left unpacked. The boxes are from when I moved back home after my last semester at college in DC. Filled with kitchen supplies I don't need and thousands of dollars of riding gear from my favorite and expensive sport. Cruel reminders of what my life seems to be made up of: Half Started Projects.

Some are half started because I lost interest. Some are half started because I ran out of money. And some are half started because I just ran out of damn time. Which is a lame ass reason, but you know, reality kicks in.

And to me, reality looks a lot like no days off, minimum wage, and maximum debt. My twenty something lifestyle isn't pretty. I mean, it's far from terrible, don't get me wrong. But it still kind of sucks. I have class three days a week and I work the other four.

I want to kind of dispel the myth that this adulting struggle is a) glamorous or b) funny.

Aside form the glamorous side of that all, it seems to be funny Twitter fodder and great Vine content. But the struggle to learn to adult and function in the "real world" isn't exactly funny. Like, ha-ha, yeah I get it, no one can boil water. But when you're on your own eating uncooked ramen, living in a box, over your head in debt, it's not going to be funny. I know I'm being dramatic here, but it's important to know how to do basic things like, cook breakfast and pay taxes and understand loans and not take out credit cards. And again, learning that shit is hard.

I guess I kind of want to share everything about my twenty something lifestyle, as I'm living it. I'm going to share the glamorous, funny bits, but I'm not going to hide the ugly, crappy, messy side either. I want to be straight up, hardcore, legit with you guys. Like I said in my previous post about my Reset, I started this blog to be honest and share my life and opinions with the world. And that includes the ugly side of being a twenty something. In an effort to keep this all a little more positive, I'll call it the legitimacy of my twenties. Sounds much more poetic doesn't it?

Until next time, coming to you from M, Personally