Life In Your 20s

People always say that your 20s are the best years of your life.  Allegedly, it is the period of your life where the world is your oyster and real responsibility can still be put off for a few years.  It is the time when many graduate from college, begin their careers, travel the world, marry, leech off of their parents, or whatever else their hearts desire.  While I don’t disagree that one’s 20s are an exciting time, I do believe that not much light is shed on the confusion of being in your 20s.

One thing that I didn’t expect to feel after graduating from college was a sense of no direction.  In high school, my direction was clear – get good grades, perform exceptionally well on the SATs, and get a scholarship for college.  Summer internships became my focus in college, as I majored in accounting and I knew that it was the way to get a full-time job offer at the top accounting firms.  Once I secured a job offer, my next goal was to obtain a master’s degree as well as my CPA license.  The problem arose after all the above goals were accomplished.  I didn’t know what to do next.   I had accomplished a young accountant’s dream, but I didn’t feel fulfilled. I realized that I had only set those goals because they were the goals that were spoon-fed to the students in Business School.  You see, my actual passions have always been writing and music.  Both passions were deemed utterly ridiculous by my parents and I was instructed to pick a “useful” major with which I could obtain a “real job” after college.  Accounting ended up being the major I chose.  I figured if I was going to be an accounting major I should go all the way with it.  Thus, I adopted the goals that my professors said a student that wished to be a successful accountant should have.  I believed that with time I would be able to make myself love accounting, but that was not the case.

 I hated going to work every morning, but I didn’t know what do alternatively. I felt lost.  While my job didn’t arouse a sense of excitement within me, it did arouse the paying of my bills.  I didn’t want to be stupid and quit my job to sing for dollars on street corners while simultaneously moving my vehicle every few hours to avoid the repo man just because I loved music.  I was stumped about how to incorporate what I love to do into my daily life.  There was no Accountants Who Actually Want to Write and Sing for a Living 101 course that I could take to find the answer.  Ultimately, I left the public accounting firm and transferred to a less hectic nonprofit accounting job.  I made the decision because I didn’t want my education to go to waste and I also wanted to leave work while the sun was still in the sky.  While I love the place where I work, I can’t help but periodically question whether I left public accounting too soon and if I should be more ambitious. 

Another aspect of my 20s that I wasn’t prepared for was outgrowing/losing the friendships of my youth, but more on that later…