When you’re a kid, you dream about growing up, imagining that once you’re an adult, people will take you seriously and listen to what you have to say. Now that I’m 22, I often find myself wishing I could go back to those carefree days when responsibility wasn’t weighing me down. There was no pressure to “have it all figured out”—there was just the simplicity of being a kid.
Don’t get me wrong, I love being an adult. I enjoy the freedom to make my own choices, to create a life and community that reflect who I am. But with that freedom comes a level of anxiety that’s hard to shake. I’m graduating this May, and even though I’ve taken classes and held internships, the uncertainty of post-grad life feels overwhelming. Sometimes it feels like my future is out of reach, and I can’t help but wonder if I’m falling behind. And with the added challenge of managing diagnosed depression and anxiety, there are moments when the thought of facing adulthood—especially with only $30 in my checking account—makes the weight of it all feel unbearable.
The cycle of responsibilities never stops: school, work, internships, maintaining friendships, managing relationships, staying healthy, going to the gym, pursuing hobbies—don’t overextend yourself, but don’t underextend either… work hard, but not too hard… save money, but don’t miss out on experiences. It’s an exhausting balancing act. I’m not saying this to paint myself as a ball of stress and anxiety—although sometimes that’s true—but to highlight the reality of how overwhelming it can all be. I’m learning, slowly but surely, that it’s okay not to have everything figured out. Just recognizing the pressure we’re under is often the first step in easing it.
For the first two years of college, I believed I had to do everything to feel in control. By junior year, I realized I was stuck in an ‘all or nothing’ mindset, where if I wasn’t doing everything—and more—it felt like I wasn’t doing enough. This mindset came from a mix of personal experiences, generational expectations, and the endless comparisons we make through social media. Somewhere along the way, I adopted the belief that perfection was the goal, and anything less was failure.
Once I acknowledged this, I had a breakthrough: striving for perfection is unsustainable. The impossibly high standards I had set were not only unrealistic but damaging. It’s essential to step back and evaluate how we think, how we behave, and whether those habits are serving us—or simply adding unnecessary pressure.
I’ve begun redefining what success means to me, and I’m finally allowing myself some grace. The world constantly tells us we’re not doing enough, that we should be more, accomplish more. It’s so easy to be hard on yourself because of that. But progress isn’t about cramming more tasks into every day. It’s about carving your own path and embracing the inevitable bumps along the way. Nothing is ever perfect, and that’s okay.
I’ve come to realize that acceptance is the key—yes, it might sound cliché, but it’s true. Accepting that life isn’t meant to be easy, and that your journey will be different from everyone else’s, makes things lighter. Acceptance doesn’t mean settling; it means understanding that perfection isn’t the goal. It’s about embracing who you are, where you are, and appreciating that your path is uniquely yours—and that’s exactly how it should be.
