22

Confession: I am a Taylor Swift fan.  In my defense, I’ve never professed to have a refined taste in music.  I’m currently a little bit obsessed with her 22 song.  When I’m alone in my car and it comes on the radio I’ve been known to crank up the volume and belt out the lyrics along with T-Swift. 

What’s funny is that I feel way too old to be singing an anthem about the life of a 22 year old.  Granted, I’m only 25 which is actually closer to 22 than it is to 30 (which makes me feel good), but I think my life looks a lot more like age 30 than it does age 22. 

When I was 22, I was in my last (and most favorite) year of college.  I was living with my best friends, having way too much fun and freaking out on the regular about what I was going to do with my life after college.  To quote Taylor, I was “happy, free, confused, and lonely in the best way.”  There was a lot of uncertainty about the future, but I was surrounded by people who shared that uncertainty, so it didn’t seem like a problem.  Instead it served as means to build even more camaraderie among my friends and me as we approached the finish line of college and the starting gate of adulthood. We enjoyed many late nights of talking, laughing and crying, got a little tipsy on weeknights, skipped as many classes as we could get away with, traveled on our last spring break trip to Florida, attended sorority formals, played intramural sports, and genuinely savored every last bit of the college experience that we could.

In contrast my life now involves a regimented schedule, an 8-5 job, sitting in traffic every afternoon, lots of bills, business trips (although I still feel like I’m playing pretend when I go on them), financial planning, church and volunteer commitments. I get excited about things like tax returns, getting good gas mileage and a great crockpot recipe.

My 22 year old self would thing I was a bore.  Which in some ways I am compared to my college life.  However, I think 25 has a lot of perks that 22 didn’t have.  I have an awesome fiancé, and I’m having a blast planning my wedding. I have a job I like and I still have great friends- many live far away… but I can afford to go visit them.  I get to share in their weddings and births of their babies.  I can look ahead at the future with a lot of certainty.  Obviously God could have plans for my life that I don’t foresee now, but as things currently stand, a lot of the unknowns that my life held at 22 have fallen into place quite nicely. 

The point of all my musings is this:  I loved being 22… and I love being 25.  I wouldn’t trade the experiences that I had then or the ones I’m having now.  It makes me feel good to look back on my life a few years ago and relive such fond memories.  I also look at my life now and am very content with the place I am.  God has been so good to me in each phase of my life so far and I’m confident that I have many wonderful phases to come.