Megan Gets Old: 25 Lessons From 25 Years Of Life

Fun fact about me, I never wanted to grow up. My little five-year-old brain would look at time and aging and just could not identify any advantages in the concept. While most children dream of growing older and all the freedoms that come along with that, all I could picture was my parents getting older and nothing ever being the same as how it was. If I could, I would have frozen time right then and there forever.

While there are some definite perks of being an adult (did someone say unlimited ice cream??), I would say present day Megan holds many of the same sentiments as mini Megan in that I have never quite come to terms with the passage of time.

I feel as though I am always dragged a bit unwillingly into each consecutive phase of my life, and while have loved each chapter, I have never gotten comfortable embracing the future. In fact, even when I knew I was moving to Ireland, which by the way is probably one of the most exciting things to ever happen to me, I still wasn’t in a rush to close my Arizona chapter quite yet.

I’m How Old?

So all of that being said, you can probably imagine my feelings around turning the ghastly age of 25. And I know what you’re going to say: in the spectrum of life 25 is still so young, I have so much life left, I’m only in my mid-twenties. And I completely understand that. I get it, I really do. For me though, it’s less about feeling old and more about feeling like I am officially being forced to close the door of my childhood and look towards the future of adulthood (although I feel old too so there’s that). I feel like 25 is the point of no return, and that is just a concept I am not ready to accept.

Happy Birthday Megan!

I guess now is probably a good time to mention that I am not just going off on an unsolicited tangent of age and mortality for fun. In fact, Monday was my 25^th birthday!

So yes, looking forward scares me, but looking back fills me with gratitude, pride, and compassion for mini Megan and everything that came along with growing up. I also can’t help but feel absolutely, indescribably blessed for this life I am living. There has been so much good, so much love, and so many incredible experiences that I never in a million years would have thought I would get to have.

Megan Gets Retrospective In Her Old Age

With those 25 years, though, have also come some definite low points and a lot of lessons learned along the way. The other day I wrote within the very crowded pages of my daily planner 25 things I have learned in my first 25 years on this Earth and as my birthday gift to you I will share them with you here! And as your birthday gift to me you will (hopefully) read them, hopefully identify with some of them, and maybe even take a thing or two with you along your own journey:

25 Things I Have Learned in My First 25 Years of Life

1. Family and Faith are, and always will be, the most important things in this life
2. Your happiness stems from what you do with the circumstances you are given
3. There is no substitute for grit and hard work

4. Always make sure you have something in your life that gives you a sense of purpose, and if you don’t, find one

5. All you need is 30 seconds of insane courage and I promise something good will come of it  (taken from the movie We Bought a Zoo)

6. Building relationships with people is one of the most rewarding things you can do, but you have to put the effort in to continuously nurture them

7. On the other side of the coin – not everyone on this Earth is here to be your friend, and that’s okay

8. Don’t question whether or not you can do something, just start! While I may not have confidence while I’m doing the thing (i.e. all 4 years of engineering school), I did it and I didn’t give up and that’s all that matters

9. Take mental health seriously, and reach out if you need help. The mind can be a scary place but you are never, ever completely alone

10. Always send a thank you card for a gift or after an interview (thanks Mom!)

11. Work to be truly present in your everyday life. Smell the roses, breath in the salty sea air, appreciate each small moment for what it is

12. Life isn’t fair (thanks Dad!)

13. Gratitude and empathy are the biggest super powers you can wield in life (IMHO)

14. Negativity breeds negativity. Always try to be the light in the room and rise above the rest, and never go to bed angry

15. Nothing bad will ever come out of being kind

16. Be accountable for your actions, own up to your mistakes, and avoid making excuses at all costs

17. Don’t sell yourself short for your successes or attribute it all to luck. You work hard so you are in the position to take advantage of opportunities when they are presented to you. In other words, to quote QUEEN Edna Mode, “luck favors the prepared, darling.”

18. There’s a solution to every problem (Thanks Mom!, pt. 2)

19. You don’t have to fit in anyone’s mold of how they think you should be. You can bring assorted baked goods into work to boost team morale and still be taken seriously as an intelligent, capable engineer

20. Passive aggression is a seed that grows resentment and nothing good comes of it. If you don’t tell someone that they upset you, then you can’t hold it against them

21. Listen to people! Really, truly listen to people when they speak

22. A good sleep, fresh air, and a walk/run/any type of physical activity will do wonders for your well-being. Also journal! Writing it down on paper releases it from your insides in a way that I can’t explain but I promise works

23. Never miss a chance to wish on a star

24. Adventure is out there!

And the number one life lesson I have learned in my 25 years of life is this:

25. Never leave a Birdie putt short (Thanks Dad!, pt. 2)

Aging, Revisited

Earlier when I was writing I think I had a pretty negative view on turning 25. And yeah, it still scares me. A lot. And I still don’t like the overall concept of aging in respect to my family and friends and how it will change my surroundings. But the thing is, I feel like things are just getting started for me. I feel like after so many years of struggling with friend drama, I have found kind, supportive people that are faucets, not drains in my life.

I have found this amazing creative outlet and I will be starting my real big-kid career this year and moving to a new but more permanent place and the world is my oyster! For so long I have worried about fitting in with friends and not being competent enough or capable enough or smart enough and for the first time I am happy being me! I If that took me 25 years to find, so be it, I have the next 75 (lol hopefully) to live being unabashedly me and how exciting is that!

Cheers to 25!

So for real, cheers to 25 for being the year that I lean in to Megan and make a difference in the world in my own way; impact people’s lives with medical technology and ridiculously positive blog posts and banana muffins.

Here’s to a year of engineering and blogging and baking and singing in the car and dancing in my room and celebrating my friendships and loving my family and making a difference in this world by being me, Megan. Here’s to 25.