Scary thoughts

[lazilyelegnatcupcake]

Hello everyone,

I'd like to share some thoughts with you and ask for some advice :/
I turn 18 in December and I'm pretty excited about it, because I live in the Netherlands and that means that I can travel for free. Because I do travel a lot here, and my church is pretty far from home, it's a good thing.

But I also realize that those past years went by so quickly. It scares me that I will turn 20 in just 2,5 years. Those 2,5 years will fly by so quickly. Sometimes I have the feeling that I am still 14. I also have the feeling that turning 20 will make me feel like I have wasted my life, because I haven't done anything useful until like this year. I will start a study for social care service. If everything goes as planned, I will graduate in 3 years, and I can look for a job. So it basically scares me that I will grow up and be an actual adult and that I will have to do stuff on my own and probably get married and do taxes and stuff like that. It just freaks me out a little bit. And the fact that I just haven't done anything useful yet kind of disturbs me, I don't even know what to do.

How did you all handle turning 20? How did you all fill in your late teens with useful things? Can you relate to this?

I look forward for sharing your experiences. <3

God bless you all :*

 

[dgiharris]

...But I also realize that those past years went by so quickly. It scares me that I will turn 20 in just 2,5 years. Those 2,5 years will fly by so quickly. Sometimes I have the feeling that I am still 14. I also have the feeling that turning 20 will make me feel like I have wasted my life, because I haven't done anything useful until like this year.....

Yeah, you wasted your long lived life of 17 years, I mean, you are going to turn 18 and you haven't discovered cold fusion yet or wrote a best selling novel that was turned into a movie that went on to make a billion dollars... Yeah, you've wasted your life

I'm sorry, I don't mean to belittle you and poke fun at you, but I seriously couldn't help it . I mean, what would you say to a 12-yr old who told you, "You know what? I'm going to turn 13 in a few months and I'm scared I've wasted my life till now..."

Take a deep breath. No seriously, take a deep breath and relax..

....Sometimes I have the feeling that I am still 14. I also have the feeling that turning 20 will make me feel like I have wasted my life, because I haven't done anything useful until like this year.

I wanted to come back to this. You are young, so be young. You have the rest of your life to not be young. Yes, part of your time should be spent learning and studying, but for goodness sakes you should also be living life!!! The younger you are the more magical life is. You have no bills to pay, you have free room and board due to loving parents, you have friends and you have nothing but time. There is absolutely nothing wrong with living life and making memories with friends and family.

I think the mistake of being young is you are too quick to put together a checklist of shoulds and should nots and then hold yourself to an impossible standard. Don't. Not to say you shouldn't have goals. Sure, goals are fine, objectives are fine, saying to yourself, "I need to get good grades so I can go to college" is fine. But don't put undo or unrealistic stress on yourself.

As near as I can tell, you are stressing over absolutely nothing. You are stressing about some day stressing which is an almost impossibly neurotic feat that would make a paranoid schizophrenic say, "Dude, what are you doing?"

....How did you all handle turning 20? How did you all fill in your late teens with useful things? Can you relate to this?

I look forward for sharing your experiences. <3

When I was a teenager, I simply did as much things as I liked as I could. I had so much energy and curiousity. So, I learned an instrument, learned a language, played video games, played Varsity Football, Basketball, Track, joined math club, chess club, ROTC, joined my church youth group, wrote poetry and short stories, read a book a week, played ping-pong, built model rockets, and hung out with my friends getting into all sorts of trouble and somewhere in all that I managed to have a girlfriend...

After 18 I went to college, studied math and physics, ran Track, joined the Karate Club and chess club, did Boxing, wrote short stories and poetry, played video games, hung out with my friends getting into all sorts of trouble and had a girlfriend...

Time does fly by, one day it feels like college will never end and then suddenly you wake up one day and BOOM, you graduate and become a certified "adult"

...I'd like to share some thoughts with you and ask for some advice :/

My advice is that growing up is NOT a competition and it is not a race. Whereas some of us joined tons of clubs and teams there are others of us who focused solely on 1 or 2 things and were perfectly content and happy. Whereas some of us went to college, others did not and were perfectly content and happy. There is no one path, there is no one way that is particularly better than another.

Just relax and live your life. Do things that matter to you. Do things you care about with people you care about. Make the most of each day and you will have no regrets.

And for the love of all that is holy, don't stress over things beyond your control. Whether you believe me or not, you have all the time in the world and your whole life in front of you. Don't sweat the small stuff and don't sweat things beyond your control like turning 20 when you haven't even turned 18 yet . Just live your life. And Enjoy being young because one day, you won't be.