Read This If You’re A 20-Something Feeling Incredibly Overwhelmed By The ‘Real World’

It seems like the ‘real world’ is this huge ladder we all have to learn how to climb without a helping hand to guide us along. The ‘real world’ owes us nothing and it’s not going to sympathize with us or give us a hug when we need it. It’s truly a daunting, unknown world full of ‘what if’s’ and question marks.

The ‘real world’ doesn’t care if we fall off the ladder on our way up. It doesn’t care how hard we try, or how much anxiety we all go through. And unlike college, we don’t have professors or advisors helping us along. We just have ourselves.

And somewhere, between the anxiety and worries that are etched in our minds, we need to learn how to climb the ladder without falling. We have to learn how to fail, and how to make mistakes. We have to learn how to fail on our own and how to succeed – on our own.

I know it’s scary. Scary to not know what we are getting ourselves into. Scary to not know what’s going to happen to us. Scary to want to do so much, but too afraid to even try and to take that leap. We want to make everyone proud of us, and we want to do our parents proud. But what if it never happens? What if we never succeed? What if we just continue to fail?

The truth is, we aren’t going to get anywhere if we keep questioning everything that we do. We aren’t going to get anywhere if we keep saying ‘what if’ this? and ‘what if’ that? 

We need to just jump. To just run, even amidst the hurricane and tsunami of our thoughts. We need to keep going, no matter how strong the currents become. To keep climbing no matter how hard we fall down and no matter how much it hurts to be slammed down on the pavement. We have to keep trying. Because if we don’t, we will just be stuck. Stuck permanently in a never ending tunnel of worry. Stuck in a cloud of doubts.

You need to give a middle finger to all of your negative thoughts. You need to give a big ‘fuck you’ to your anxiety that makes you doubt yourself. Stop the doubts, stop the voices in your head that tell you, that you will never make it.

And even if you fail, even if you crash and burn out, at least you can say that you tried. At least you can say that you did something.

Take that leap. And if you fall, try to fly. Don’t ever stop. Don’t ever stop believing that you are great. Don’t ever stop believing that one day, someday, you will get to where you need to be.

Do not stay stagnant. Do not stay frozen in the unknown. Because when you enter the real world in fear, you aren’t going to achieve what you need and what you want. Enter this world with belief and hope instead of with uncertainty.

You have got to believe in yourself. Even if no one else does. Even if the world laughs back at your positivity. You have to hold onto that hope and onto your backbone of belief.

Show this world that you are better than what it thinks of you. Show all those people that you weren’t a waste of space. Show this world that you are a warrior, despite the hardships that came your way. Show them how you failed and how you flew. And show yourself, that all this hard work and all this pain, was worth it in the end. And above all, make yourself proud. Make yourself believe that anything is possible.