The One-Size-Fits-All Narrative of Your 20s Needs to Change
Your 20s don’t have to be the “best time of your life.”
“This is the time of your life,” the nurse said to me as she searched for a vein. At 27, I finally had health insurance and could get the colonoscopy that doctors had been suggesting for years, so I was feeling pretty good about things—as good as one can feel after having spent the previous 12 hours in the bathroom. But she wasn’t referring to the procedure; she was talking about my age. Even at this very odd, very vulnerable moment, I represented to her freedom and opportunity—your 20s, supposedly the time of your life.
Many people roll their 20s through a sugar coating of nostalgia. But framing young adulthood as the best time of life is a little grim, as it puts a limit on growth. This glorification
