20 Things To Do In Your 20's

20 Things To Do in your 20’s

My birthday is five months away, so I realize this is a random thought, but in five months I will be twenty-six.  That means I am definitely no longer early Twenties and closer to thirty than I am to twenty.  That. Is. Terrifying.  I never really imagined having a hard time with turning thirty, but shit, I am already having a hard time dealing with twenty-six.  I think your Twenties are such a special time.  This is when we get to be so completely selfish.  Your Twenties are meant to make mistakes, take risks, and find out who you are.  It feels so good to be young and free and I intend on making the most of my next four years and five months.  This is my list of things that I think everyone should do in their Twenties. 

Travel!

This is super obvious and should be on every to-do list no matter your age.  But don’t hold off, because traveling is so much easier in your Twenties when responsibilities are few.  In your Twenties you are also a lot more flexible and adventurous, so staying in noisy hostels and sleeping in cheap beds won’t be an issue.  You will meet so many other people your age from around the world.  Nothing shapes your view of the world and of yourself like traveling.  It is so important to have a grasp of what life is like for other people.  Spend time in Europe, go study abroad somewhere, road trip across the country, or take a solo trip somewhere.  It will inspire you and change your life in all the right ways.  I spend too much money on a lot of stupid things but I will never regret a penny that I have spent on traveling. 

Experiment &Make Mistakes

“There is a time and a place for everything and that place is called college.”  --Homer Simpson

If you are going to try risky things or make mistakes, now is the time to do it.  I even feel like I might be starting to outgrow this a bit, as I’m nearing my upper Twenties I am feeling the crush of responsible adult thinking.  I have a few more reckless actions to take part in but I feel my time is running out.  Your Twenties is the time to make mistakes, preferably early Twenties when you don’t have so much to lose and you bounce back quicker.  One nice rule to follow to keep you safe: It has to come from the ground.

Don’t Rush Marriage and Children

"Now is a good time to read, ask, and think about what it is like to commit to marriage and child rearing.  I don’t know about the men folk, but a lot of women default to marriage in the first post-college years, in part to create a path for themselves at a time when their lives feel unfocused.  This is not a good reason.  Fall in love, fall into bed...but don’t fall into a life you haven’t really considered. " (Thanks to Mag-Pie Girl for wording this more eloquently than I could.)

Read a Classic

These days I love reading and I feel the urge getting stronger with each birthday.  Like I have said before, I never used to understand my mom reading as a hobby, but…holy shit, I am turning into my mother.  I need to dive into one of the classics…you know, the really old books that are deemed as super important and seem boring because of that?  I was made to read Animal Farm as summer reading in 9^th grade.  I tried and failed then also failed the test on the book the first day of high school.  First and only exam I have ever failed.  I don’t think I will ever give Animal Farm another chance, but I am ready to try a “classic” again.  I’ll let you know how it goes this time around.  I am taking suggestions, although I am strongly considering starting with Thoreau’s “Walden” because my friend Greg gave me this shirt from his clothing company Miles to Go.   I also really want to read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. 

Learn a Foreign Language

I am so mad that I didn’t do this sooner.  I took three years of Spanish in high school and was doing really well with it when along came college and it was no longer necessary for my stupid Design degree. Now I am left with this terrible Spanglish thing.  So I am going to give Rosetta Stone a shot and see if I can became bilingual in more than just curse words.  M speaks Spanish and I would love to be able to speak it with him and his family.  I would love to be able to use it when traveling and I am sure it would help me career-wise as well.  Learning another language can break down cultural barriers like nothing else.  It is embarrassing to travel abroad and realize that America is one of the only places where most people only speak one language. 

Learn about Feminism

Yea, yeah, yeah, so we can vote since 1920 but gender equity has still not been reached and I am appalled at how many young people believe that it has.  Women regularly give up their power, are victimized, and devalued.  In America we still make less than men, have a lower rate of college graduates, and still have not made it into the Oval Office.  In other parts of the world women are banned from driving, forced to wear burqas, denied the right to divorce, drive, or seek education. In Bahrain a husband can file an official complaint at the airport to forbid his wife from leaving the country.  In Iraq, Libya, Jordan, Morocco, Oman and Yemen, married women must have their husband’s written permission to travel abroad.  Female infanticide is an issue that many forget about.  China’s One Child Policy has made it common for families to abort, neglect, and abandon female infants.  In India the normal ratio of births is 950 girls for every 1,000 boys, but in some areas the number is as low as 300 girls for every 1000 boys.  (Source) I could probably go on for a while about this if I could get all my thoughts organized, so it will probably be its own post someday.  Get excited.  And in the meantime read this blog: Feministing

Volunteer

Again, something that should be done at every age.  And again, something that is easier to do in your Twenties when you have fewer responsibilities.  Your Twenties can be a selfish time, which I think is wonderful, it is supposed to be.  But to keep that selfishness in check try to give back every now and then.  Take a night off from drinking and wake up early to serve food at a homeless shelter.  Skip your nap and take dogs at a local animal shelter for a walk.  Spend a week working with children at a summer camp.  Volunteering will always give you more back than the effort you put in.  

Get Your College Degree

Today a Bachelor’s Degree feels like a high school diploma.  It is mandatory for a lot of jobs and certainly most well-paying jobs.  It seems really crazy to be done with education when you are eighteen.  Also, most eighteen year olds are not equipped to be adults yet; college is a nice little buffer for the real world.  

Complete an Internship

Oy.  If only I could go back.  Upon graduation you have big dreams of a real job complete with an office or a cubicle of your very own; you have been broke for four years and now it is time for your reward.  So an internship, working long hours with no paycheck, just seems dumb.  Four years after college graduation and I am thinking about how dumb I am for not getting that experience.  I know other people who I graduated with in much better positions and a lot further in their career because of the connections they made during an internship.  Try finding a real job with no experience, I dare you.

Pay Off Credit Cards

This is the hardest one.  I know that my spending and subsequent debit is not nearly as a lot of people I know, but I cannot stand having debt and I just can’t seem to get rid of it.  Every time I pay off my credit card I manage to abuse it and get it all maxed out again.  I am working on it though and now I have a goal in sight (moving to NY).  But really, there is no reason for me to hace credit card debt right now and if I am ever going to be a financially responsible adult I will need to get a handle on that shit ASAP.

Live Somewhere Awesome

I am doing this soon, so I can’t really comment on the benefits of this experiment but I can say that it is something I have wanted to do for a very long time.  Whenever I have thought about moving somewhere awesome people have been super supportive, especially older people who always say, “I wish I would have done that when I had the chance.”  All I know is that I never want to say that.

Spoil Your Parents

They have spent twenty-plus years taking care of you; it is time to give back.  I can’t wait until I can do more for my parents like take them on a vacation, but right now buying them dinner or washing their car will have to do.  I love the way my relationship with my parents has changed as I have gotten older.  My parents are wonderful friends and I love getting to relate to them in a way that I never have before, adult to adult. 

Do Something Crazy

It was suggested to me that I go skydiving before I get married or have kids.  I can only assume that this is because if I die there are less people to be sad about it; morbid to say the least, but sound advice nonetheless.  I have gone Shark Cage Diving which is pretty crazy, yeah?  Just not crazy enough; those steel bars made me feel pretty safe.  It was exhilarating and probably terrifying if I wasn’t so fucking stoked on adrenalin.   Anyway, I think I might have to jump out of a plane soon.  As soon as they find a way to strap me up without a serious case of camel-toe. 

Turn Off the TV

When Jessica and I moved in together we both called the cable company on separate instances to set up our cable TV, and we both got so irritated and frustrated that we gave up.  Two months in and still no Cable, we decided we didn’t need it. So for a year I had channel 10, a fuzzy 12, and four PBS channels.  I guess I could still watch TV, with a very limited selection, but without DVR it’s really not as enticing.  I ended up watching a lot of movies and documentaries from Netflix.  I don’t know if this counts as not watching TV since I still technically had a TV on which I viewed my movies, but it was a stretch for me at first.  Not because I missed it but because it was habit.  I actually never missed it.  Not once.  Not when people were talking about the latest episode of some singing reality show or the newest vampire soap opera.  Movies and documentaries (especially documentaries) have a lot more substance than a weekly TV show.  Not having TV freed up a lot of time and made me turn to more productive activities for entertainment.

Build Your Personal Library

I love books.  I love the covers, I love the smell, I love seeing them stacked on shelves.  I have had an internal struggle for a while with whether on not to get the Kindle.  It has the convenience and the “green” factor, but I just can’t let go of the real thing.  I would miss the bookmark, taking it in the bath, and being able to take part in one activity that involves no technology.  I also really enjoy loaning and borrowing books from people.  Books are just nice to have around.  Get a few nice photo books for your coffee table, some for the shelves, but whatever you do, please don’t keep them in your bathroom.  I know this is off subject but am I the only one who thinks it is really gross to keep reading material on top of your toilet? It’s sitting there all covered in germs shouting “This is what I hold onto when I’m taking a shit!”

Give Away Your Stuff

You don’t need as much as you think you do.  For being the daughter of a pack rat and avid collector, I actually am really good at giving away my stuff, just ask my sister whose closet I recently filled.  It feels good to get rid of the things you don’t need and only keep the things you love; probably a good lesson for life in general.  We collect a lot of stuff over the years, especially clothes, and if you haven’t been going through your closet regularly chances are you have some pretty outdated duds.  Donate them and give them a second life. 

Hang a World Map

Hanging a map will remind you of how small you are and what a big world we live in, which will help make your problems seem insignificant, manageable.  Seeing the world on your wall will also inspire you to see it with your eyes. 

Camp With Your Friends

Go camping with your friends.  Pack light.  Eat heavy.  Pee in the woods.  Wear the same clothes the whole time. Drink, smoke, and laugh around the campfire.

Learn How to Clean

I have become so good at cleaning and I fucking love it.  It happened like everyone said it would, when I got my own place and there wasn’t anyone else to put my shit in the dishwasher.  Take pride in your home.  Don’t let the dishes or the laundry pile up.  Spend fifteen minutes every day when you get home to straighten things up.  You will be organized and feel so much more relaxed with everything in its right place.

Take Risks With Your Job

Our parent’s generation was taught loyalty as the key to career success.  Unfortunately, being laid off after twenty years at the same company has taught many of our parents that loyalty doesn’t mean what it used to.  While you are young, with only yourself to feed, learn what it is that you really want to do; it will involve taking some major risks.  Take the chances now, work at different jobs, learn lots of skills, and never stop growing.