Louis Michael: Key to the door

Last week I turned 21. When I turned twenty it was momentous because I was finally leaving my teens behind and beginning my twenties, the epic decade, the glory days. But for some reason the zero weighed heavy. I felt as if being on the very cusp meant I wasn’t actually properly in my twenties. Now, with that added one at the end of my age I don’t feel that at all any more. Whenever I mention my age in conversation I’m surprised at how old I sound. No doubt I’m sure it sounds ridiculous – a twenty one year old saying they feel old, but everything’s relative and I’m the oldest I’ve ever been right now! Growing up with three older siblings meant the twenties always felt so far away in my future, and now I’m here I have to keep reminding myself that I’m a fully fledged certified adult now. In age that is.

The goal of my twenties is clearly going to be to earn the right to call myself a proper adult. I may have circled the sun a couple of times now, but adulthood is a skill that you have to learn and practice. With the weekly shop I have to plan my meals before I go, otherwise I don’t know what I’m buying. But if I buy fresh ingredients I don’t always know which nights I’m going to be in so they go bad before I can use them. And as much as I’d love to cook extravagant meals a lot of the time I don’t have the time and energy to put lots of separate things together when I can have one quick instant thing instead. And joy of joys it seems this is what it’s like in every other single aspect of adulthood too. 

But it’s okay, because I’m excited for the transformation it will bring. I’ve enjoyed the leisurely years I’ve spent in my early life, but call it getting older but I can feel myself ready to knuckle down, to focus in, to start living to my fullest potential. You get out of life what you put in, and I think I’m ready to start putting in as much as I’ve got.