Now that my friends have started have begun turning 20, I am realizing just how scary that age is. Twenty. They are now in their twenties. The next few years will all get jumbled together when telling about their past.
“When I was in my 20’s, the government shut down!” Let’s hope I never get to say that, I’ll be 20 in July and if the government is still shut down in July, I just might run for President. And let me tell you, you probably don’t want that.
“When I was in my 20’s I had 400 Instagram followers!” All right, so maybe we won’t be Instagramming every meal we eat or dessert we cook when we’re in the later half of our 20’s, but for now, Instagram is chock full of all of our decadent meals and anything in nature we find the least bit pretty looking. Over 50 likes? You either A) posted a really great/hilarious picture B) Are extremely popular, or C) are a 13 year old, selfie-posting middle schooler. Oh! Another mirror picture! Let me be your 87th like!
People care way too much about how many likes they can rack up, so hopefully once the clock strikes midnight and it rolls into my 20th birthday, I won’t let it get to me that I only got 10 likes on the picture I posted of the Dome from across the lake. I thought nobody had ever instagrammed that before!
I’m actually dreading the day I turn 20. It is my golden birthday, so it should be a grand old time, except does golden birthday even mean anything? Do I get a gold necklace? Eat McDonald’s under the golden arches? Stare at the golden dome all day? Play with a golden retriever?
Even more pressure for my already under pressure 20th birthday. I can’t even celebrate with a beer, and I’m no longer a teenager, meaning I have to at least pretend like I’m a grown up. Ew. 20 is such an awkward year. You can’t drink alcohol but since you’re not a teenager anymore is it socially acceptable to be sippin on a Capri Sun? And don’t lie to me, you know you still drink those.
Even though you’re considered an adult at 18, 20 just has so much more adult connotation. Maybe it’s the graduation into an era without a –teen at the end of your age, but I feel like everyone expects more from you now that you’re 20. Whenever I’m stressed out with my immature teenager life, I just let Simple Plan remind me that “I’m just a kid and life is a nightmare.” I guess 19 isn’t exactly a kid, but it’s a whole lot more childish than 20.
So live it up, teenagers. Just a few more years until you’re really launched into adulthood. I’ve got 9 months to do reckless teenager things that won’t be acceptable when I’m a big, bad, 20 year old.
What to do first? Play some drinking games with Capri Sun? Get a tattoo that I’ll regret in 10 years? Instagram my dessert?! Oooh I’m such a rebel. And you people in your 20’s, you just keep doing you. You might be a big kid now but I promise I won’t judge you if you order a kiddie cocktail instead of a beer at dinner. We’re all kids at heart right? And Hey! You’re younger now than when you’ll be in your 30’s!
Since Simple Plan might not be able to soothe your teenage problems anymore, here’s something even better. A good friend of mine once told me, “Everything will be all right if we just keep dancing like were 22 (or twenty, too!)” So you twenty something year olds, keep on dancing.Â