The Twenty-Something Checklist
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Have you read Jennifer Schaffer's A Checklist for Age 19? Jennifer's list is genius, here are a couple of my favorite hauntingly true lines:
Know that you are on track for successes that will always be secondary to that thing you really wanted but were too cowardly to chase. Imagine yourself surrounded by Excel sheets on 40-inch iMac screens and feel terror.
Get excited about things like jogging and dinner parties and rooftop gardens and adopted mutts and raw foods. Start training for a 5K. Throw together an evening with sliced tomatoes and Charles Shaw and medium-rare, Forman-grilled steaks. Climb onto the roof of a two-story academic building at night. Visit the websites of animal shelters, point and click and say ‘that’s the one.’ Develop neurotic habits when choosing produce at Trader Joe’s. Craft convincing imitations of a world you’ve yet to enter. Exist in a perpetual state of preparation for a life you’ve yet to earn.
Forgive. Forget. Fake it. Chin up. Wear lipstick, make lists, make sure your voicemail isn’t full. Mix protein shakes, send timely thank you notes, sip drinks more slowly...develop perfect posture. Be gracious, be kind, eliminate self-pity. Capitalize your emails, read the news, walk briskly, stay focused, and never, ever let on that you are somewhat lost and sometimes lonely and so completely confused (and would someone please just let me know what it is I’m supposed to do next, where exactly I’m supposed to go–). Just keep going. Go, and do not stop.
Jennifer's list inspired me to create my own Twenty Something Checklist of 20 pieces of advice I wish I'd heard before embarking on the decade after college. I did not write all the lines, I curated many of them from a variety of blogs, books, movies, magazines, and great conversations. It's a cheat sheet for life in your twenties, and I hope you find it as useful.
- Drink too much coffee, wear bright pink nail polish, and never settle for a life you don't want. {Paper & Glam}
- Washing your hair is going to be a chore. But you should do it anyway. You will feel better about yourself.
- Life is a constant battle between I want to look good in a bikini and Treat yo'self. Find a balance. {Paper & Glam}
- He is going to break your heart but he’s just another male human who finds it hard to deal with Mondays, too.
- In order to move on, you must understand why you felt what you did, and why you no longer need to feel it. {Mitch Albom, Five People You Meet In Heaven}
- If you want to feel like a put together individual instead of a frazzled mess, get up earlier. Watch the sun come up as you drink your first cup of coffee. Make your bed. Keep your room clean. Buy some candles and fresh flowers. {Paper & Glam}
- Don’t fight your demons. Your demons are here to teach you lessons. Sit down with your demons and have a drink and a chat and learn their names, understand why they're here and don't need to be in the future. Some of them are very nice.
- Whenever you feel like critizing someone, just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had. {Scott F. Fitzgerald, The Great Gatspy}
- Music is good for you. Pop music will get you ready in the morning quickly and with a little sparkle. Country will remind you to keep it simple. Love songs will make you cry and think about that boy again. It’s healthy to let it out, but do move on. {Paper & Glam}
- Victim complexes are not attractive. Boys (or girls) will not date you because you are sad. They are not going to date you and kiss your aching bones and cure you of your dragging depression. Wake up. Take a bath. Do your hair. Be attractive.
- Sadness is not poetic. Depression is not beautiful. Laying in bed all day and eating too much is lazy, it is not tragic or pretty. Get up. Go outside. Let the sun warm your bones. Live.
- If it makes you happy, do it. Dedicate your life to it. Wake up early and stay up late for it. Skip parties and late nights out if it means spending more time on that thing you were put on earth to do. Print it on shirts and collect things that inspire you to do more of it. Do not care what people think. {Paper & Glam}
- When you get to your mid-twenties, every other weekend is a wedding related activity. Chin up, we're all right there with you. {Paper & Glam}
- You're a lucky girl if you've got your own apartment, coffee in the cabinet and books on the shelf. {Paper & Glam}
- Don't lose too much weight. Girls are always trying to disappear as revenge. {Marty McConnell}
- If you miss someone, miss them. Send them life and love everytime you think of them, and then drop it. {Eat. Pray. Love.}
- Life is not meant to be lived in one place. We all need to leave and come back for all the same reasons. {Donald Miller}
- A Sunday well spent brings a weeks content.
- The sound of high heels on the pavement as you walk is the ultimate power trip, like you could be buying milk or on your way to assassinate someone.
- Live an exemplary life. Think about the woman you wanted to grow up to become, is that the person you see looking back at you in the mirror? If not, it's not too late to live a life of example. {Paper & Glam}
What's on your Twenty-Something Checklist?
*The lines without the {source} are unknown. If you know the source, please share.