The four years you spend in college are no doubt the best years of your life, but what no one talks about is the awkward months leading up to turning 21. When the thrill of returning to school in your junior year wears off, the frat parties get boring, and you’re waiting to turn only one year older, it’s hard to admit that your frontal lobe is developing.
For some, the feeling of wanting to stay in rather than go out, might only last a little. But for some, the academic pressure and the thought of going out to a party that might be majority freshmen experiencing freedom for the first time, it might be an ongoing thought.
20 Something
Junior years, in high school or in college, are arguably the hardest years of education. In college, the added pressure of a future less than two years out can tend to make everything worse. The feeling of having to be dragged out by your friends because you feel as if you’re outgrowing the frats, just tends to get worse. When you start to think more like you’re procrastinating your school work rather than wanting to be partying, or your idea of fun starts to feel like staying in, you know it’s time to stay in more, and wait until you’re 21.
At this point in life, it’s time to stop caring about pleasing other people. Just because “boring” and “grandma” accusations are being thrown around left and right doesn’t mean you need to change how you feel to make other people happy. 20 is for self care, locking in, and feeling great about yourself.
It’s time to start realizing that taking a few months to yourself, almost the “calm before the storm” of 21, is okay! It’s hard to feel like you are so torn in the middle of missing out on a social life, and feeling like you are falling behind academically. 20 can be the most pivotal year of your life … and it’s okay to feel like that! In less than two years, the real world begins, and it’s okay to feel awkward about the place you’re in right now.
Embrace 20
So live while you’re still 20. It’s okay to stay in. It’s okay to light a candle and take a self care night, and for that to become your every night. Drinking wine on the couch and watching TV with your roommates might start to seem like an ideal idea. Bond with your roommates while you are all still living together, before being separated into the real world. Study for the exam, even if it is a week away and your friends are calling you boring, you do you, and don’t let anyone make you feel otherwise.
You are only 20 once, not quite 21 yet. Feeling too old to enjoy the frats, too young for the bars, too in the middle of where you are in life, and that’s okay.
What’s your favorite low key thing to do on a Friday night? Be sure to follow @VALLEYmag on social media and let us know!
