Melissa Cristina Marquez

I remember being a kid and thinking I would have everything figured out when I was in my twenty's. Afterall, that's when your'e an adult, no? Out of college, with a job and all. I thought about chasing sharks on a coral reef, coming home to my husband and our 3 kids and two dogs. We would have a big house that had a white fence around it and a wrap-around porch. I laugh at that now.

Here I am in my mid-20's and feeling like while I have figured A LOT out, I still in no way, shape, or form have everything figured out. I have the husband, but we have no kids or dogs. I am a secretary who orders printer toner and cleans up after other adults in a large kitchen. We don't own a house, although the one we rent does have a fence but no porch. Yet, I'm proud of all I have despite of it not being what small Meli thought it would be. And I am happy with what I have, which I think is one of the hardest and biggest things to learn in life, at whatever age that comes.

What nobody told me - or the rest of us youngin's- is that your 20's are the most transitional season in your life. There is so much uncertainty with every step you take-- you make friends, you lose friends, you feel your way around the job market, you live on your own or with roomies you either love or hate, you finish school or you continue it well into your 30's, and you go through many relationships or get married and have kids... all while still feeling like one. It is a time where you are ever-evolving and things will look drastically different from the beginning of your 20's to the end.  

Like I said above, I don't know everything yet but here are a few things I do know and think everyone should have figured out by the end of their 20's.

Ah, a brand new, clean slate for the new year! I love having a brand new calendar that awaits for me to write down all the ideas that I want to pursue. I am open to all ideas... but I am not a fan of someone shoving their ideology down my throat. For example, I once knew someone who is vegan and essentially said I was a walking contradiction by saying I was an environmentalist and eating meat (I could write a whole blog post about how damaging that sort of mindset it). Although all of our group ate meat, for some reason she honed in on me, to the point where I felt she was bullying her for not seeing things her way.

If I have learned anything about communication as a science communicator, it is that you do NOT go about sharing information this way as it just turns people off to your message. I'm a fan of giving people the facts with little bias and being open to any questions, allowing a person to make up their mind on a subject matter. 

For a while, that's how it felt many in the "pursue less" ideology were like. The idea of pursuing less in a more intentional way is a topic that has been around for a while now. In an age where materialism is very real, many people blanch at the thought of having to give up their possessions. People on either side wore their stuff (be it much or not a lot) as a badge of pride and it sort of felt like a pissing contest I wanted no part in.