Many of you are entering your 30s, looking back, and worrying you’ve wasted your lives. I was in that exact same position, but I was able to work through it and build a successful career as a writer, focussing mainly on articles insisting I didn’t really throw my 20s away.
You can do it too! Here’s my step-by-step guide to convincing yourself it was smart to waste your 20s and then write about it.
Step 1: Convince yourself your successful friends are losers
Think about your most successful friends from school and remember that they were too busy building skills and relationships to have fun experiences like you.
Jake with the two kids has no idea what it’s like to hike the part of the Appalachian trail you hiked before quitting because you heard rain was coming. That’s real living!
Remember: Your 20s are for figuring out what you actually love to do, your 30s are for insisting that that’s what your 20s are for.
Step 2: Don’t worry about your lack of savings
Sure you don’t have any extra money. You don’t have any extra money because you spent it all on experiences. Remember that.
Now write an article telling people to also avoid saving money in their 20s. But leave out the part where you lived with your parents until you were 28. That’s a downer.
Related: Teen Angst Lasting Well Into Local Man’s 30s
Step 3: Rebrand your failures as learning successes
If you’re like me, the only time you had any ambition in your 20s was when you spent a couple years at the local pool trying to develop a new exercise craze called “underwater boxing.” It didn’t work out.
Even though SoulCycle came and ate your lunch, you still learned a lot. Probably enough to write an article called “15 Reasons It’s Hard To Start a Sport” or something like that.
Step 4: Video games are art
So the 10,000 hours you spent on Call of Duty was a deep exploration of culture. Nice!
Step 5: Light a candle. Turn off the lights. Look into a mirror and say “Everything I’ve ever done will someday be useful in an article I am writing freelance for the internet. This is my purpose. This is my salvation”
It’s the gig economy, baby!
Not having a steady job for the past 10 years means you’re way more prepared for the future of labor than your peers about to permanently lose their steady jobs. This is your time to shine! Write that article!
Article by Kyle Erf @kyleerf
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