The 25 Best Things About Being in Your Early Twenties
By Anna Breslaw
1. Your face is a fresh, dewy wonder. Had a crazy night out? Later in life, you'll spend 45 minutes in the bathroom trying to look slightly less like Charlize Theron in Monster. But for now, you could spend all night doing crank in a radiation lab and still wake up looking 17.
2. You're still that person who "just doesn't get hangovers!"Hahaha, oh boy, JUST YOU WAIT.
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3. You're free of any high school and early college labels you may have accrued. When you go to happy hour with your coworkers, or out with a new guy, they don't know that you were considered the "responsible one" in high school, or that you once drunkenly puked in the broom closet of a frat house, or had bad hair, or that your nickname used to be Jenna Teeth Blowjob. You're free to reinvent yourself. (Jenna Awesome Blowjob?)
4. You have an excuse to upgrade your wardrobe for both work and play. This ain't no sweatpants-to-your-11 a.m.-recitation shit. Once you land your first job, you have an excuse to go on a profesh-woman shopping spree. (And counter it with a bunch of hot going-out outfits.)
5. Theme parties. Truth bomb: After the age of 25 you will never go to another Great Gatsby-themed house party again. May as well give the flapper number to Goodwill and check your "getting wasted in period attire" pass at the door.
6. You can prematurely start the beauty routines that will Benjamin Button your twentysomething self for years to come. Moisturizer! Eye cream! Way ahead of the game if you start these ASAP. I didn't moisturize until I was 23 and when I told a bunch of friends this, they looked at me like I'd just pooped on the table.
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7. You can go out in American Apparel dresses without questioning the age-appropriateness of it/you/every decision you've made. Go forth and purchase that body-con U-neck dress with no remorse. You look amazing.
8. You can still be on your parents' insurance. Do not underestimate the importance of access to Pap smears and root canals.
9. You can still be on the family plan. How much does it cost to send one text? You don't know, do you.
10. Going to a music festival is still exciting and awesome and not a living nightmare. Ditto for low-budget road trips. Or sleeping on anyone's floor. Or couch-surfing.
11. A drunk person trashing your house is still a funny story, not yet the worst thing that could ever happen and winds up costing you your security deposit. Starter apartments, in general, are meant to be trashed. #sorrynotsorry.
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12. You just got your first real paycheck and are able to buy things. Or just, like, one Anthropologie bowl. But, things!
13. Side-bow headbands are still a possibility for you.
14. Go ahead, have Wendy's chili and stolen work bagels from the office next door and $1 pizza for every meal this week. Because you'll feel fine, and not sick at all, and I'm jealous.
15. You can hook up with the most inappropriate and/or lame people in the universe without even the slightest worry that it should "go somewhere." I guess you can do this for forever, but when you're 22, you don't even feel anywhere NEAR obligated to keep seeing duds just for the sake of it.
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16. Basically all of your peers are as confused as you are.You're all on the same page, more or less. Once you hit your late twenties, people start getting married/pregnant/traveling through space.
17. Metabolism. 'Nuff said.
18. The energy! O to go to parties that start at 11 p.m.
19. You have sexual power simply by virtue of your age. Being in your early twenties has a strange, hypnotizing effect on older men - even slightly older. Not that they're the ones you should be focusing on... but still. Yay for power.
20. You are automatically one hotness level up from college because you've learned how to style yourself better. No more ill-advised harem pants.
21. You have more Twitter followers than your boss.
22. You unabashedly post pictures of yourself to Facebook and Instagram without wondering whether you'll come off self-absorbed. And trust me, once you are an Old, you'll be glad you have proof that you once had skin that nice.
23. It's still early enough to deviate from your major and/or make a big career switch. I majored in film, and now I am doing this. That is all the proof you need.
24. You can travel the world and basically not miss anything.Go! Teach English in China for a year! Now is the time to go backpacking and exploring and screwing around - and when you get back, you're still right on schedule.
25. You have never found a gray hair and had an existential crisis about why we're REALLY here, what is our purpose, how will I ever find my soulmate, should I be doing more aid work??? Nope. Not a problem for you.
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