Living life in your 20’s means jumping from hurdle to hurdle and having basically zero stability in what your future will look like. It can be hard to embrace this lack of control over what life throws your way but on the other hand, it is often looked back on as a time that people remember the most as it is so full of adventure and excitement.

When you’re growing up in your family home it feels like life has a certain path that is supposed to be taken. You go from school routine to college and perhaps a gap year program. But then, you break free from the constrictions of institutions (something you’ve probably been waiting for quite some time) only to realize that it’s just you. No one has an exact manual of how to do things, when to do them and what they will lead to. People may give you advice and you may ponder whether you should listen to those older and wiser or go with your own hunch in the hope of possibility and personal discovery. There’s no one answer. With time, you accept that so-called mistakes are bound to happen but then something beautiful happens. The ‘mistakes’ of life shape you and open up your mind to understand life in ways you couldn’t possibly grasp earlier. It’s the age-old saying that sometimes no matter how many times someone tells you to beware, you will only come to understand once you’ve been burnt.

Getty Images/DigitalVision/ Klaus Vedfelt

In your 20’s you will probably lose friends, lose relationships, lose jobs, miss opportunities and at that moment it will feel like the worst thing that could happen to you, but it’s not. It just means you’re growing and evolving and your energy does not align with that thing anymore. That way, experiences that are better can come along to suit you. Most importantly, you discover yourself time and time again through it. You learn to love yourself more because you come to understand that you are the one stable thing in your life which is one of the most beautiful and empowering lessons life can offer.