Anonymous
Photography by Emma Kraus
If you’re reading this, you are more than just one thing.
I feel like our twenties are centered around establishing our identity. In doing so, we feel the need to cling to something, anything that can tether us to a sense of self. It looks like committing steadfastly to a singular feeling, thought, or course of action. It’s leaning into horoscopes and superlatives; it’s loving (or even loathing) a singular music genre; it’s running marathons, and it’s being a doctor. It’s anything that gives us something to hang our hat on at the end of the day. In a world of people searching for themselves, it can be easier to commit to one thing rather than sitting in the discomfort of multiplicity.
I think this is where we can go wrong. First, just one thing… how boring?! Second, how self-limiting?!
In my mind, the coolest humans are the most complex ones – not in a mysterious main-character way, but in an experienced and ever-evolving sense. I love someone who has bounced around, been uncomfortable, and has stories to tell about who they once were versus who they are now and even who they may become.
Moreover, why feel, think, or be just one thing? In committing to singularity, you are stripped of internal conflict, strife, and juxtaposition that encourages you to grow into something dynamic, someone who can house two things at once.
I say all this to remind you that when that one test or interview or job or school or friend absolutely rocks your world and makes you question your entire being, you are going to be okay. When things come crashing down on that one defining thing, you will find meaning elsewhere. When life gets messy and you feel your sense of self is slipping away, you are not losing but gaining. These things that shatter us allow light to shine through those tiny cracks and illuminate all the other pieces of ourselves that have been in the shadows for far too long.
You are growing and changing. You are making space to hold contradictions and complexities. You are becoming compelling. And, yes, shedding a past self and embracing something new is going to feel extraordinarily uncomfortable, at times even unbearable. But these moments of uncertainty give you time to recalibrate, to find bits and pieces of yourself that give you your spunk and sparkle. They give you time to soak in the energy of those around you, intertwining all their good and weird and wonderful with yours. They give you space to expand into a fuller version of yourself, one that is colorful and captivating and so much more than a singular superlative.
Your twenties are a challenge, but they are also an opportunity to feel, to think, and to be so much more than that one thing. So, please go ahead and read about your rising sun, run that marathon, and become a doctor, but don’t let those things become you. Because, after all, you are so much more than just one thing.
Anonymous, Boston University
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