Long-term relationships in your 20’s - are you missing out?

Your 20’s are, perhaps, the most formative years of your life. The years that you make friendships that you’ll take with you through all of life’s trials and tribulations, where you travel more and become more explorative of the world around you, where you build confidence and find out what it really means to be an adult. When I was younger, I was itching to grow up and to finally experience whatever it was that the grown-ups were doing with their days. I asked a teacher in primary school what being an adult was like, and she told me she can eat as much ice-cream as she likes. 

Unfortunately, growing up isn’t just about eating as much ice-cream as you like, there’s also more complicated aspects (shocking, I know) like relationships, and the overwhelming question of ‘is this what I should be doing with the time I’ve got?’ 

Relationships in your 20’s can be extremely complicated, because you’re no longer a teenager, but you are very much still growing and learning what you like. It may be that you were in a relationship for some time and you realised that wasn’t what you wanted at all, you may have never been in a relationship, you may have never wanted to. Every possible situation you can think of is completely normal – there is no rulebook for your 20’s (if there was, it would be a bestseller.)

I promise that everyone else is just as confused as you are, if not more. Whilst a relationship can enrich your happiness, it isn’t essential to it. Your 20’s aren’t for finding the love of your life, or forcing anything that feels wrong. You should explore what’s around you, and look to life with an attitude of abundance. Regardless of what you do, you will always make mistakes, and it is completely natural to want to avoid these. However, perhaps part of being an adult is leaning into the mistake-making, and growing from them (albeit reluctantly.)

The point of this article, I suppose, isn’t to lecture anyone on what they should and shouldn’t do, or to put my own experiences onto others. I will however say this. Whatever you feel is right, usually is. If you think a relationship will stop you from having the best experience in your 20’s, don’t bother! Meanwhile, if you’re in a happy relationship, you should not feel limited by it but rather uplifted. The grass is rarely greener on the other side if you nurture your own.