In high school, all of my parents’ friends and my teachers told me that these would be the best years of my life. They said that high school would be where I made all of my lifelong friends and all of my most awesome memories. Despite that logic, I quickly realized that these tidbits of wisdom didn’t actually apply to me. I’ve only kept one high school friendship and I hated just about everything about high school.
Fortunately, I turned 20 and started making the most out of it because if there is one thing I know to be true, it’s that your 20s are really the best time of your life. Simply put, you only get one decade to make stupid decisions without really being responsible for anything. Once you turn 30, everyone expects you to have your shit together – so experience everything while everyone still assumes you’re young and stupid, like the 5 suggestions below.
1. Prioritize Your Grades Over Parties
Does this sound absolutely crazy? I’m sure it does, but using your weeknights to allocate time for homework is going to get you the grades you deserve. You’re not a C-student and you could probably score a high grade on any test or paper if you actually applied yourself and devoted time. Not getting your college degree, or getting it with subpar grades, will be the first thing you regret when you enter the real word. No one appreciates a person who half-asses something as important as your college education.
2. Challenge Yourself
Sometimes I find that I pick the easiest task in my workload to do first, but I’ve quickly realized that I’m not bettering myself when I do something that doesn’t push me to work harder. You will always be stagnant if you don’t encourage yourself to try something that pushes you to your limits. Apply to study abroad. The process of living abroad is difficult but will guaranteed be one of the best experiences of your life. You could even start a fundraising event for charity, or even a school fundraising event. Just because something is hard, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. Sometimes the hard things are what make us better as individuals.
3. Be Alone More
I’ve found that people who spend the majority of their time with another person or in groups are more likely to engage in groupthink, a psychological term where a person feels under pressure to not deviate from the group’s seemingly unanimous decisions. Plain and simple: think for yourself! Spend some time alone and figure yourself out. Learn what you truly believe and don’t believe in.  You’re more likely to stick to your group and follow the beaten path when you constantly do things with your friends.
4. Spend Less Time or Delete Your Social Media Accounts
I love apps that track how much time you spend on your smartphone because the majority of that time is often dedicated to social media. I personally use Moment because it tracks the time I spend on my phone automatically and allows me to set daily limits on my phone usage. Take a moment to think about how much time you spend on your social media accounts and think about how much time you could have spent living in the present. There are so many wonderful things going on in the world around us that we often miss the coolest parts because we have our heads down looking at the same status updates we saw 30 minutes ago.
5. Treat Yourself
As a society, we spend too much time working and not enough time living in the moment. This summer, find three cool events that you’d love to check out and experience and do something crazy; request off work and do them. I’m not saying you should request off every time something you kind of want to do pops up, but make time and schedule it into your life to do the things you genuinely enjoy doing.
Never forget that your twenties are supposed to be spent making lasting memories because, after all, this is the time of your life that you will remember as the most freeing. Study hard, challenge yourself, love yourself, get to know yourself, and treat yo’ self. You only get one chance to make this years are fulfilling as you want them to be, so do it right.
Featured Image via Pexels.
