What is expected of you in your 20’s?

A very common question that has a way of stirring up controversies. Growing, I had very high expectations of myself, I still so. I remember even setting dates and attaching age. Let me briefly ,run you through my life. I started my volunteering at a tender age of eighteen. I remember just loving the idea of being part of a movement. This organisation Nacham welcomed me with open arms. I went to the lengths of doing prison visits and facilitating workshops aimed at addressing challenges faced by the youth at risk.

It was an amazing experience to find myself being actively involved in addressing challenges faced by my community. I was not asked by anyone to volunteer. I was just attracted to the vision of integrating ex-offenders into society. I was moved because the thought of ex-offenders being vulnerable when leaving prison alarmed me.

The question, I posed comes back “what is expected of you in your 20’s”?

To cut a long story short or story for another day. I went to varsity ,graduated and continued with my activism. The challenge is that now my place in society as a twenty something year old is then questioned and challenged. Hello twenty something olds, are you here with me? Are your getting questions like when are you getting married ? What car do you drive? Are you a homeowner yet? How often are you travelling? What do you do for a living ?

If you cannot answer any of those questions or do not have any of these items, so does this make you unsuccessful? I often get very conflicted with the expectations of your twenties because its standards that are set by society. Being born onto this earth, we did not arrive with any manuals on how to run our twenties. Unless, some of you “secretly” did, however I did not get a manual to run my twenties.

It is the standards set by society ,pressuring twenty something years old to fall into debt because they feel that their peers have surpassed them. They have become very anxious that they are not homeowners. The fear of mingling with their peers to receive responses such as “you still live at home”?  Or you graduated at 25 years old ? What have you been doing with your life? It is these unrealistic standards set by society that drive people into a depression and leave them belittling themselves.

If the expectation of your twenties is measured with what you have acquired, I am concerned. If the expectation of your twenties is measured with age? I am really concerned.