Welcome to the 20 Something’s!
What the hell? I woke up. And guess what? I’m in my late 20s. 28 to be exact, and in a couple of months, I’ll be 29. But let’s really talk about it. In the eight years since I became a 20-something, what in the hell has really happened? Well, a lot, to be exact. A few things that I realized were that 20-somethings are never really taught how to be just that a 20-something. No one taught us how to be in between the teenage years when we came out of high school. The young adult years, when we are in college finding ourselves and living life, right before we hit our 30s. Our 30s are where our real lives seem to kind of balance out a little bit. In your 30s, you are supposed to finally feel like you are taking hold and making it in life. Right? Well, here we are. Some of us are in a pivotal space, awkward again, in our 20s. While some of us are living our best lives, others are traveling, going through a number of one-night stands and lovers for three or four months at a time. While some of us are busting our asses, which is probably the majority of us who are busting our asses, trying to find meaningful relationships, whether that be with ourselves doing self-work and soul work, or with others, whether that be friendships, family, or let’s not beat around the bush relationships.
Relationships are something that became, or what we were to assume would become better in our 20 Somethings. We assumed we would have more stable partners, or at least understand what having a partner or a significant other would be like. Again, we were wrong, right? Relationships today feel like advanced versions of high school with games, mediocre comments, laughs, and love. Honestly, it can be disappointing. So why not be 20-something and want to live your best life? Well, what I’ve come to realize at 28 is that living your best life depends on what your standards are and what happiness means to you. What best actually means to you. Something they never explained to us when they told us, Hey, you’re gonna graduate, you’re gonna go to college, you’re gonna get degrees, you’re gonna get a job, and you’re gonna have a great life living that American dream with kids, a porch, and a white picket fence. Those things are not always true. And being a black girl from a little bitty, yes, Midwestern Town, which everybody calls a big city (that’s not true). At 20-something, I honestly have decided that living my best life means having peace. But what I also realized was that even my friends and I, who have been taught well, still realized we didn’t know a lot of things that we felt like we should know as 20 Something’s. We didn’t always learn things that would prepare us to become the 30s, who are successful, confident, strong, and feel like they have both feet on the ground. So at 20-something, how do we help other 20-somethings and the newer upcoming 20-somethings make it through our 30s, 40s, or 50s? How do we grow so that the generations before us can stop saying, y’all, kids, and this generation? or I can’t believe yall don’t know how to do… and make them say, Wow, I’m very proud of you. Well, that’s a whole other topic for another time. But how do we at least get comfortable enough with ourselves that we feel like we’re doing fine? Well, welcome to From CJ With Love!
My job in this blog is to share all the knowledge and experience I have acquired to help the next generation of 20-somethings as well as reach some of us current 20-somethings. My blog aims to explain and discuss things we need to help us do better and keep moving forward. Some of the topics we will cover are: dating, living on your own, finances, religion/spirituality, basic skills, jobs, friends, your plan/goals, travel, cleaning and organization, cooking and food, reading and its benefits, maintenance/diy, and self-care. Whewwww! That’s a lot, but I will be talking about it all in plenty of subcategories within each of these topics. The goal is to help us move through the 20s and become the best versions of ourselves and human beings. So welcome! Grab a snack, a drink, and maybe a notebook because we are about to get into it.
As always,
~From CJ with love 💚