It was my birthday back in June. I usually want to plan a huge blow out, but this I year felt different. I didn’t want to throw all my friends in the same room to celebrate. I just wanted to spend quality time with my closest friends. I remember turning 22 and feeling like my life was over. 21 seemed like the best age and I never wanted it to end. Now that I have officially reached my late twenties I can’t believe I was that foolish. I don’t know when it happened but my mentality has definitely shifted.
Weekends are for rest and relaxation not shots
My weekend activities revolve around my interests. My weekends are to take care of my mental sanity and decompress. I love to be pampered and catch up with friends. My weekends consist of errands, outdoor activities, the gym, the occasional manicure, meal preparation and good food. I love to wake up early, meet a friend for a sweat session and then grab brunch. I look forward to sitting down with one glass of wine on a Friday night after a long work week. I melt into my couch and pour myself into my PVR. It seems like a distant memory when I used to spend hours getting glammed up for a night out on the town with my girlfriend, which usually ended with a greasy late night snack and extreme dehydration the day after.
Conversations are completely different
Last week my girlfriend and I went furniture shopping. I was looking for the perfect rug for my living room and she was looking for a nice coffee table for her apartment. We laughed at how much our lives had changed. This would be the least of our worries five or six years ago. Home decor was an after-thought. Our usual thought process would be clothes, boys, pre-drinking and girl drama, not always in that order. Our conversations now revolve around our careers, our goals and the things we are passionate about. We are weekend warriors in a completely different sense now. We are training for half marathons, working on projects for work or mastering a new recipe.
Sleep is so valuable
Don’t get me wrong, I have always loved sleep but I cherish it more than ever now. Nothing beats waking up feeling rested. I don’t want to be a complainer but working full time barley leaves me enough time in the day. It is a huge adjustment to the flexible schedule I had when I was going to school. When my head hits the pillow I am out and when my alarm goes off in the morning I hit snooze three or four times. When I am not well rested it shows. I have bags under my eyes, my productivity at work goes down and I have trouble concentrating. I remember when I was in my early twenties, I would stay up all night, go to work and survive on three to four hours a night. My body would kill me if I tried to pull a stunt like that now.
Friendships have more meaning
The friends I had in high school were there because I would see these people every single day. We did not necessarily have anything in common. My friends in my late teens were people I could go partying with. When you get to university there is the opportunity to meet like minded people. It is nice to be surrounded by people with similar goals and interests. I still have friends from high school, but I have definitely weeded out the pack. The people I make time for are the ones have value in my life. I don’t have time for drama or conflict. We are there for each other, we motivate each other, we give the other person what they need at that time.
We have a new spot
In the rare occasion that we do go out to get “twisted”. “The spot” is no where close to “the spot” I used to go in my earlier years. I used to look for loud music, hot boys and cheap drinks. These days, my local watering hole is low key. The music is just loud enough to not drown out conversations. It has a nice laid back atmosphere, so I can wear jeans and a t-shirt and not feel under-dressed. It closes at 12:00AM instead of 2:00 AM so I know that I will still be able to get a good night sleep. They have a good variety of beer and wine, because at this point in my life, I have had more than my share of vodka slimes and I never want to revisit those days.
My late twenties are all about value. I understand how much my time is worth and I don’t want to waste it on trivial things that do not enrich my life. I know what I am passionate about, I know what I enjoy and I don’t need to surround myself with the wrong people or waste my time not working towards my goals. It is a refreshing change of pace. Every year when my birthday comes around I stress about my number getting higher, I tell myself that I am just acquiring more wisdom each year. As I get older I am more self aware, I am constantly growing and evolving as a person.
