Questions of my 20s

It was a couple weeks ago that I was scrolling through my feed page on Instagram, where I came across a post that intrigued me. 

From the account, @akulshinasonya, they’ve introduced a collection of posts with the following theme: question of my 20s. In these posts, there would be a picture of some sort of scenery or people (that the same owner took) followed by a question at the bottom. 

Many people responded to these questions in the comments, others I believe took it upon themselves to answer themselves. And so, because I found these posts to be fascinating and engaging, I decided to host some sort of questionnaire with a couple of friends. They also happen to be all be UIC students! To mention, I added my personal response to these three questions as well last.

First Question: When in college, am I running away from something or pursuing my dreams? 

Ivett C. :  “I think it’s both. I am trying to get away from the parts of my life I don’t like but I also think I am doing that by pursuing my dreams of becoming a teacher. I only say running away because I want to avoid those issues by keeping busy with school. Thinking it will be worth it in the long run is what keeps most of us going”. 

ArletteO. : “Personally I feel like it's both. I feel like I'm running away from being able to have more freedom to discover myself because I'm so focused on school. But at the same time I feel like I'm pursuing my dreams and hopefully securing a better future for myself and my family”. 

JahirH. : “When I’m in college, I’m pursuing my dreams. I’m constantly trying to figure myself out and who I am. It's a process and while we want to get to the finish line without the tedious hard work, it’s important to embrace the work we have to put in to make it so much more worth it in the end”.  

SamanthaD. : “I’m for sure pursuing my dreams, although I would rather be famous LOL, working in the marketing industry is something I have always envisioned myself doing and I know that this career path was a good choice for me”. 

VanessaS. (me): “When in college, in my personal experience because I switched majors and career choices, I feel like I’m doing both. I feel as if I am running away from the choices and career I could have done, however it does seem now as if I am pursuing my true dreams. Pursuing that goal by actually attending school and getting my work done, by putting in my all to do better, while still trying to attain the goal of having fun”. 

Second Question: What advice would my future self give me for this period of my life?

Ivett C. : “I would tell myself to do things for myself. Don’t wait for other people, if you want to do something go for it because you never know when you’ll get the chance again”. 

ArletteO. : “I think the advice my future self would give me is to probably relax a little more and not be so hard on myself. To also not let distractions put me off track with my own goals”. 

JahirH. : “Advice from my future self on this time period would be to just enjoy it. Right now we can and should make mistakes in our personal and academic lives, if not how will we grow and find our path. I would tell myself that in the end, we can’t control everything and that’s more than okay”. 

SamanthaD. : “Time heals all. I really think time is the answer to everything. Do you feel stressed? make more time to do whatever you have to do? Are you going through a breakup? give yourself time to heal, feel, and breathe. I feel like sometimes we really take time for granted”. 

VanessaS. (me): “A piece of advice my future self would give for this period of time, is to enjoy the moment. To enjoy the study time I get, the friends I see in class, the times out and our campus, the people and connections I make now due to my career choices, we don’t get these later on in life”. 

Third Question: Why are there no instructions for how to be an adult? 

Ivett C. : “It’s different for everyone. There are no written rules to being a kid or a parent. It’s the same way with adults. You never really realize you’re an adult until maybe you have to pay some bills. But for some it could have started at a very young age. Not everyone is perfect and I think that’s part of not having rules. Everyone treats situations differently. We are all wired differently so I think if there were any 'rules' they would constantly be broken.”

ArletteO. : “I think there's no instructions on how to be an adult because everyone has a different calling in life. There's a lot of factors that make everyone unique and instructions wouldn't help people live their life”. 

JahirH. : “There’s no instructions on how to be an adult because we’re not all meant to live the same way or pace. We have to do better to give ourselves some credit for doing what we feel is right for us”. 

SamanthaD. : “Everyone is a child, a teen, an adult etc. only once. Sometimes we forget that it is also our parents' first time being a parent, they didn’t have a hand book on how to be one. as to why there isn’t one to be an adult, no one really knows what they are doing. We are in control of our actions but not of our life. We can't control the fact that our future has been written for us but we can choose the decisions we are willing to make in order to make better versions of ourselves. a lot of times i feel like being an adult comes with a negative connotation, due to taxes, living alone, groceries, bills etc, but all these things help us mature and experience life”. 

VanessaS. (me): “A saying that I say and remember quite often is 'you live and you learn.' This usually comes in when I make a mistake in school or see my friends worried about something similar. Meaning, you’re gonna learn from it and continue living to do better the next time. Because of this, there are no instructions on how to be an adult because as you grow, as you are transitioning through life, you have to keep going and make the rules as you go, for yourself”. 

I encourage those reading this to view the instagram profile and owner of this idea, @akulshinasonya. You will be able look over the art work they’ve done with this theme. You might even come across other questions and new answers from other comments and people, that intrigue your minds too! 

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