What I learned in half my 20s

I am turning 26 in three weeks. I am officially feeling closer to 30 than ever.
I know there must be someone reading this in their 30s, probably ready to smack me.
I am having a mid-life crisis. Please excuse me. LOL.

Let's just jump the gun and say I have no idea what I am doing in life.
With that being said, I thought of some things they don't tell you about your 20s.

1. You'll be poor. 
Recent grads don't get paid anything remotely close to a decent wage in some professions. Not all grads, just some, like me - who are afraid of working in Downtown. And here I thought, I'd be rolling in the dough after a couple of jobs - LOL. Just kidding. Although I am glad that I paid off my student loan this year.

2. Your friendships will change.
People will come and go. The time spent in your 20s is when you figure out who is true to you. It's the time to decide what kind of friends you want to associate with. And sometimes, you just outgrow certain people. Other times, you may get ditched by friends. Don't try to fix it, just accept it and move on.

3. Your career path may see some rough patches.
For me, changing from Law to HR has been challenging. But this is the time you are getting to compare your book learning with real jobs. Law didn't turn out how I had hoped it would. It was still interesting though. But I find HR way more interesting. And the most important thing - I feel like I can fit into this profession really well.

4. Your metabolism will hate you.
I remember the days I lived off of nasty campus food. There was an entire year at UTM that I spent eating merely pizza. I had a bagel and a coffee every single day. These days, I can gain pounds by just smelling a pizza. This is when a healthy exercise regime and a good diet plays a role. Something I can't follow.

5. Life is going to be difficult.
You have to put in effort. You can't just get by. I used to snooze the alarm and skip classes in university because sleeping was more important to me than a boring anthropology lecture. But in the working world, that doesn't fly very well. I slept in ONCE in 4 months at my co-op and reached 1.5 hours late to work. I had a mini heart attack on my way there just thinking about my explanation. From that day, I made sure I woke up half hour early than I needed to. Slacking doesn't get you anywhere. You gotta show people you are worthy of being there. Sweat, tears and hard work = success. No short cuts.

It's important to know that there is no magic bullet to success. I used to think I will have it all figured out in my 20s and then I will be "successful." I have to remind myself that you have to continuously be successful on a daily basis to sustain success because it is not a destination. As corny as it may sound, it is a journey. And it never stops, unless you do. I learned some pretty harsh realities in my early 20s but then again - this is only a small sliver of a lovely long life.