Being 22

Sunday is both my favorite and least favorite day of the week.

I religiously read Post Secret  and the new secrets get posted on Sunday. Every single Sunday. For those of you who don't know, I will explain what exactly Post Secret is. People from across the country (and the world) send their secrets in the form of post cards to Frank Warren's home in Maryland. Every Sunday I read them. Sometimes they are sad, sometimes they are inspiring, and sometimes they are just fucking weird.

This week, one post in particular really resonated with me.

From PostSecret.com 

I have recently become mildly obsessed with both of these women. Tina Fey, I have always looked up to, even though I find 30 Rock to be pretty boring and not that funny. Everything else Tina Fey has done I absolutely love! I first fell in love with Amy Poehler when I saw her in Baby Mama, alongside Tina Fey. More recently, I have fallen in love with Parks and Recreation. I love the actors, characters, and storyline. If you don't watch Parks and Rec you are seriously missing out, I mean it!

The reason this post stuck with me is because I am 22 years old. As soon as you graduate from college (at 21 or 22, usually), you are expected to have your life figured out by society. What do you want to do with your life? Where do you want to live? How are you going to finance graduate school if that is what you choose? How do you meet friends in a new city? 

It's nice to know that it's not really realistic for people to have their lives figured out completely at age 22. If Amy and Tina didn't have it figured out by 22, how should I be expected to have it figured out right now? I'm just trying to figure things out, and do whatever makes me happy these days. 

Taylor Swift  also has a song out now entitled "22" from her album Red

I love this song - well, I just really love this Taylor Swift and feel like I can relate to most of her songs. Taylor is about a year older than I am, and so all of her songs correlate to the age I am when they come out. 

On of the lines in this song is "we're happy, free, confused, and lonely in the best way. It's miserable and magical oh yeah....I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 22." This is basically accurate of how I feel in my life most of the time. I'm happy that I am in graduate school at Columbia, pursuing my dreams. I'm happy I have a great boyfriend. I'm happy I have great friends (who are 300 miles away from me). I'm free - I live in an apartment by myself (basically) 3000 miles from my parents and 300 miles away from all of my friends. I'm confused because while I kind of know what I'm doing with my life I really have no idea past my masters degree and that's really scary. And obviously I'm lonely. I live in the biggest city in the country and I have about 5 friends there. My best friends and boyfriend live 300 miles away from me. 

All of these aspects of my life are simultaneously awesome and terrible. But I guess that's how I'm supposed to be feeling at 22, according to Taylor.