Older.

Today I realized that I am an adult. It came to me in my psychology class. We were discussing the lifespan for a woman: infancy, childhood, adolescence, emerging adulthood… those years in between our teenage phase and adulthood. The number of this trend is growing as our generation is waiting on getting married/settling down. These are the years you discover yourself and formulate what you want out of this lifetime. I realized today that I'm not at this point in my life anymore. For me, adulthood has always been a scary looming thought. I always thought of it as "real life" and cutting ties with the help you needed in the years previous. But I honestly think that the hardships that we face as "adults" are also present during the "emerging period". The problems that we encounter are what make us into who we are. I often contemplate "I wish I would have done this" or "done this earlier" and I essentially regret a chunk of my past since now that I'm way older than the average college student. But when reflecting back today, I had another view on life's hiccups: If all of the events in my life did not happen the way they sequentially occurred, then I would not be at this point in my life right now. I am the healthiest I have ever been. I have formed relationships with people that are dear to my heart. I am following the dreams I have had since I was 8 years old. I am proud of the person that I have worked so hard to be. These past couple of years, I fought to find my identity without compromising it for anyone.

I have been dreading getting older once someone told me that I was entering my late 20s a year ago. But I feel that life has gotten exponentially better every year and that we all improve with time to learn and grow as people. I'm still trying to figure things out and I don't think this will ever change. It makes life more interesting when you strive for a little more out of life.