22 is a golden age. Your brain is fully developed. You have probably 8-10 years experience already. And you have a lot of time. Then comes work, house, and kids, and you'll have to wait until you're 50 before getting productive again.
I think we understand how the human brain develops now a bit better than we did 50 years ago. And that at 19 you're basically not fully cooked yet. So yeah, at one point you were thought to be fully developed by 19 and that meant you should go get a job and put an oven in the kitchen for the little lady. But now we know that your attitudes and opinions will (or at least are likely to) change a great deal between 19 and 25. This also means your motivations and what makes you happy will change. But if you're concerned with locking down the 9-5 as soon as possible, then you're much less likely to find something that actually makes you happy.
Sure, your 20s is the end of the easy part. Between natural growth of your body, and the hot-house environment of organized schooling, you can't help but grow. You become more capable and aware each year just by living. But you leave the greenhouse in your 30s. Your hormones stabilize, and the impersonal bureaucracies around you are more interested in extracting value than improving you. You miss it because youth is wasted on the young.
As an adult, any growth, or increase in personal capacity will only happen as the result of choices and actions you make. But you might be very surprised how much you can still grow. It is cliche, but I've watched a lot of men turn 40 and 50, and they are either in the best shape of their life, or heading downhill and picking up steam.
Once he/she figures out how to do development and get paid for it sustainably.
Unfortunately, either of the sides is not automatically guaranteed with age. So, general guidance is to practice it as early as viable. Some luck helps too.
If there is someone who has figured their lives at 20, believe me s/he is a) an exception, or b) thinking wrong. Study a lot, make lots of friends, and get laid a lot.
At Age 20: I was partying like a madman, it was awesome
At Age 21: Graduated, seeing a great girl, making a little money, enjoying city life
At Age 22: Still having fun, meeting and sleeping with new people
At Age 23: Yup. Same.
At Age 24: New girl, same awesome life
At Age 25: Lots of international travel this year. More great friends made Fun!
At Age 26: More of the same.
And I'm still doing financially fine (though have not ever really settled into home ownership, I'm too fond of packing everything in and moving round the world), and am building a business based on the technical experience I gained in that decade. Also now in my mid 30s I still like learning and I still enjoy risk-taking.
You'll never make me regret not taking life seriously, and channelling my awesome early-20s brain-power into socialising and enjoying myself.
You can't push pause on human development, though. Having your first job interview at 26 instead of 25 doesn't matter. Missing out on a year of socialization when you're 6 almost certainly does.
> But by the time your 22 [...] Your getting used to a decent standard of living.
Get off my lawn!
Seriously, though, from my late-30s-with-a-young-family perspective, if being 22 with a girlfriend and an internship is enough to stop you chasing your dreams, then they weren't really your dreams after all.
I’ve heard it said that life doesn’t really start until 40.
As you grow up I think you get to know yourself better, you get better emotional stability, etc, and doors open up for you to really dive in and find and enjoy genuine happiness with less drama and less confusion. The only doors that really close as you get older are physical ones, and you can do things to slow that down. Everything else is a social construct.
Your 20s are about feeling things out and making mistakes. Some people make stereotypical “mistakes” like drinking too much and getting into trouble; others make different “mistakes” like spending too much time on their career, or choosing the wrong career, or burning out. I think these are equally valid and necessary as learning experiences.
There are also a lot of institutions interested in making 22-year-olds feel brilliant in exchange for their creative output. Once you leave the institution or find yourself at a different place within it, you may lose some of this feeling—not because anything changed about you, but because of your changing relationship to the thing which was supporting your self-image.
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