Why now is the perfect time

Ask yourself this: “If I keep living my life exactly the way it is, where will I be in a few years?” If you don’t like the answer, maybe now’s the time to change course.

This is the time of the 20-somethings. We hear of more and more younger people refusing to let their age define what they can or cannot do. Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai is inspiring a nation at 16, and a young Mark Zuckerberg created a multibillion-dollar company. Conversely, we graduate college and ask, “Now what?”

Seeing success stories of young entrepreneurs can be intimidating or exciting – but the temptation is to respond by spending our early 20s in a paralyzed or apathetic limbo, deciding what to do for “real life” in our late 20s or 30s. This cripples us; so much change and growth happens now that if we don’t take advantage of it, it’ll pass us by like smoke.

I don’t want to sit down one day when I’m in my 30s and realize I’ve run out of time to pursue the things I really want in life, just because it took me this long to figure it out. These next formative years are some of the most volatile and important I’ll live through – and if I don’t keep falling and picking myself up, going after what I want to do with my life now, I may not be able to later.

Granted, we face a sketchy job market. Sure, we may not have the experience now to get the experience we need. What we’ve cultured ourselves into believing, however, is that we can do this on our own – we can achieve our version of immediate success by throwing ourselves at challenges as hard as we can. There’s a simpler word for it that I’m extremely guilty of: pride. I’m realizing more and more the opportunities to pursue those things I value won’t often come from my immediate circle of friends or efforts, but those acquaintances whose names I will probably fail to remember when I shake their hand.

An important thing for us to establish now is that getting a good job – a career – quickly after college isn’t a bad thing, and it isn’t the end of our youth. It’s the beginning, an important step forward in shaking off the fear of being pinned down or chained someplace and taking the first steps to a stable, confident, happy adulthood.

I guess when it’s all said and done, what I’m trying to say is this: Whatever it is about ourselves that we want to change for our future, whatever impact we want to have, now’s the easiest time to do it.

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