I very recently turned 20 years old. Not the fun birthday, the year before that one. Nick Carraway, in The Great Gatsby, said of age 30, “Thirty – the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning brief-case of enthusiasm, thinning hair.” If that’s the horribly depressing lens through which F. Scott Fitgerald viewed his 30th birthday, how would he have morbidly described stepping into his 20th? Twenty - the promise of a decade of stress and mistakes, hoping to scrape together the perfect life? No. I don’t think that’s how he would have put it.
All joking aside, there are a few important things to consider at moments like these.
To get this one out of the way, I have officially begun my 365-day countdown until I become legally able to drink. This one should excite me a lot, but considering the length until this can be realized, it would just be better to wait it out patiently while giving it as little thought as possible. To be honest, the main perk that I find exciting about my 21st will be the ability to enter certain bars and music venues (mainly in Austin) that have always stopped me at the door. It always made me feel like that one episode of Spongebob, where he wasn’t tough enough to get into The Salty Spitoon. Not for long, Mr. Doorman.
Another thing to consider as a newly christened man of 20 is the end of my teens. How did I actually make it through all of that? Peer pressure? That first bad breakup? The SAT’s? My freshman year of college? It all seemed to happen so fast, but the pain of growing from a squeaking child into a man expected to excel was not easy. But now, I’ve figured out how to shave without slicing my entire face off and have somehow kept a handful of challenging jobs. Although that awkward period of aggressive maturing is now over, I suspect that I will still have A LOT of growth left over the next 10 years. Let’s just hope it happens with fewer voice-cracks.
There are moments in life where you KNOW that it’s time to take things up a notch. I have bills now. Fraternity dues. A house. A girlfriend. Getting through these next few years of college. I have a long list of conflicting goals that get me thoroughly excited about the years to come. How can I adequately step up to the plate? Bill Gates apparently NEVER took a day off in his 20’s while he was building Microsoft. Not even one. Is that what I need to do?? Is it worth sacrificing the fun of youth in order to make billions or achieve one’s wildest dreams? I’d like to have fun and be young, but something tells me that fraternity partying and concerts will have to take a back seat. In 2016, with the whole world in front of me, it’s worth at least buckling down a bit more.
