The Waiting Room

I thought my twenties would feel like moving ahead. Like I’d be growing, achieving, and building something meaningful every year.

Instead, it feels like I’m stuck in a waiting room, watching everyone else sprint past me. Friends are traveling the world, climbing their careers, buying apartments, getting engaged, starting businesses. And me? I scroll through their lives and wonder—will I ever catch up?

“Stuck in a waiting room, watching everyone else sprint past me.”

Have you ever felt like everyone else is moving forward while you stay in place?

Comparisons That Hurt

Social media doesn’t help. It’s a constant reminder of where everyone else seems to be. Every post, every story, every achievement makes my own life feel smaller and slower. It feels like I’m failing at the very thing I’m supposed to be mastering: adulthood.

I ask myself constantly. Am I too slow? Not ambitious enough? Do I lack some secret everyone else has? The comparisons whisper that I’m behind, that I’m failing at the very thing I’m supposed to “have figured out.”

It’s exhausting. And lonely. Watching your peers succeed while you feel invisible is a weird pain.

Progress Is Quiet

And yet… I keep showing up.

Even when it feels like nothing is changing, I keep trying. Even when it feels like the world is moving faster than I can keep up, I keep trying.

Because deep down, I know progress isn’t always visible. It doesn’t always come with a certificate, a social media post, or applause from strangers. Sometimes progress is quiet. Sometimes it’s invisible.

Waiting isn’t wasted time—it’s preparation. Patience, resilience, and self-awareness are born here, in these messy, confusing, uncomfortable years.

Lonely, Frustrating, Real

Some days, I wish I would fast-skip. Skip the waiting room. Land somewhere I feel accomplished, successful, proud.

But life doesn’t work that way. Maybe that’s okay. Maybe the beauty of being twenty is not in the speed of progress. It’s in learning how to keep moving. Learn to move, even when it feels like nothing is changing.

I’ve learned to celebrate the small wins. Finishing a project I was scared to start. Sending an email I’ve been procrastinating on. Learning a small skill that feels useless but matters.

“Every struggle, every awkward failure, every day that feels like treading water is building the person I’m meant to become.”

Showing Up Every Day

The truth is, being twenty isn’t about finishing. It’s not about arriving somewhere with your life perfectly figured out.

It’s about showing up, every day, imperfect, messy, scared, and still moving ahead. It’s about learning to tolerate uncertainty, to embrace discomfort, to fail without letting it define you.

Some days, it still sucks. I see my peers moving forward while I feel stuck, and it hurts.

But the waiting isn’t nothing. Every struggle, every awkward failure, every “I don’t know what I’m doing” moment is quietly shaping me.

You’re Not Alone

Someday, when I look back, I’ll understand these years. I’ll see how the confusion, the frustration, the feelings of being lost were necessary. I’ll see how every small choice, every painful comparison, every night spent wondering “why not me?” quietly prepared me for the life I haven’t yet imagined.

For now, I’ll keep showing up. I’ll let myself feel the frustration and the loneliness without letting it define me.

Maybe someone reading this will whisper to themselves, “Me too. I feel this.” And in that moment, maybe we all stop feeling so invisible.

“Being twenty isn’t about arriving. It’s about surviving, learning, and quietly becoming.”