When I first graduated from college, I was so excited to start my adult life! All I could think about was the excitement of having a real job and moving forward with my life. I almost felt like I wanted to just skip ahead. I had everything planned out on how my life would go.

Then, the plan didn't go as I expected and I felt kind of stuck, lost, and sad. I didn't get the real job of my dreams. My life like I planned it ad come crashing down all around me. Now, I know how silly planning my whole life plan around a job sounds. But in my eyes, that's what school was preparing me for.

One thing I like about having hard times (really the only thing) is that you can learn a lot about yourself during those hard times.

Now that I step back from the situation in a better place, I learned that I've been taking myself too seriously. A 22 year old is not going to have their life all planned out right after college. Even now at 23! I should be enjoying myself right now, not just about being an adult, but enjoying this time of freedom from school and large responsibilities (kids, house, etc.).

Another thing I noticed about myself is that I'm too hard on myself. I made myself feel like a failure because I wasn't where I wanted to be in life. I am no where near a failure. I've graduated high school, graduated college, and I've gotten a job in my field plus a few internships. Most people my age are at this point in their life which brings me to another point: comparing myself.

With social media constantly around (I love working with it but can admit when it has its downsides), we are always seeing what our friend are doing with their lives. It's nice to be able to catch up, but the downside is feeling like you aren't as great as your friends. I notice myself constantly comparing me to other people on my news feed. I finally had to realize that we are all different and have different experiences. Comparing mine to someone else's does me no good.

Lastly, I've learned to just go for things. I feel like I've held back from a lot because I just didn't think it would benefit my adult life. It's still somewhat hard to take risks and I do it more cautiously, but I'm slowly trying. For example, I've always said I would never dye my hair because it's unprofessional. I still worry about hair damage but one day I just decided to get blue extensions! Why not? I'm only 23 and it looks really cute!

Bottom line is this really is a really great time in our lives where we will always look back on. Don't look back on stress. Look back on fun memories of things you've always wanted to do. There will always be a time to worry about the unknown. Right now, embrace it!

Originally posted on According to Brittney