1. As I read apiece discover, by Sean Thomas, I started to look
back at my life through out the years and wondered how
much more difficult I made things for myself than they really
needed to be. The years that really grab me by the throat
and choke myself are my early twenties. I can probably refer
to that period as my Twenty-Two Year Old Self.
At twenty-two, I would have sat here and gave you a book or
two at least of excuses on why I could or should be able to
experience all these new and exciting things. In reality, I was
searching, reaching and desperately wanting to cling to
something that could provide me with just enough of a proof
to make that light bulb come on above my head that says
YES! This is it. I wanted that awe factor.
With a few years of college under my belt, I felt like I had
this. I would get the paper to take home and show them I
stuck it out and got the degree. It wasn't like it mattered all
that much, as long as I got the degree I was going to get a
job, that's what happens when you get out of college.
Everyone gets into a little trouble in college, the family gets
mad and yells and then poof it's all over with. Big deal…
Hey, I am twenty-two, it's not like I haven't heard other
people talk about this. I am sowing my oats they say.
Yes, that was, in fact, the twenty-two year old me. Foot loose
and fancy-free, I really thought I was living it up back then, It
hurt knowing I was letting people down and hurting the ones
I loved. Never, did I imagine just how much they believed in
me as an adult as an equal to them. I sit here today, and I
tell my twenty-two year old self never again lose Hope.
Find those friends who you had before you became twenty-
two. The one's that you were proud to bring home and call
your friends. If there were no friends, what kind of people did

2. you look up to? Look for friends around town, school, work
that act like that. Stay with people who have dreams and are
actively working at them instead of just beating their drum
about them. Everyone can talk about a dream but what are
they doing to get there. Any little bit is a step in the right
direction. Find your flow, it could be a person, place or a
thing. It will be something that drives you.
While you are going through those final four years of high
school, begin searching yourself. You will rarely find the ah
hah answer. People do change during those four years. It is
however during those years that you are defining yourself.
During the last two years is when you really have to buckle
down if you hadn't before and hammered out your path. Get
with those who have believed in you, stuck by your side and
held your chin up when you felt battered by the weather.
They don't have to be family to feel like family. An inspiration
or motivator comes into your life at all different times and
hours of need.
At twenty-two, I had freedom. I chose what time I got up, go
to bed and where I went. Hey, I was an "Adult" now. I set no
rules, no boundaries no curfews. No nothing. Adults just
didn't need those. They were for kids. With a flick of my
collar, I am off and about at half past noon.
When you find that "flow", it will inspire you to reach new
levels. If you are choosing to stay up, it will be because you
need to absorb information for a big presentation, test or
other exciting opportunity tomorrow. It will not be because
you are hanging with friends. You will feel better about
yourself. The freshness can't always be described with the
exact words, but it can always be felt with a lightness under
the heaviness that you have laid on yourself with your past

3. actions and choices. Even when thinking back over the
years, you will experience the feeling of the heaviness of
those times until you remember to sit back and remember
that you found that flow. Your motivation to get up and get
moving. Surround yourself with positive people who want to
get somewhere.
That does not mean for you to forget where you came from.
Where you came from is what built you. Where you are
going is what is chiseling you. You will always need to go
back home to keep yourself in check and don't ever tell
yourself otherwise.
The moment you convince yourself that you have made it
and there is no need for you to ever look back at where you
came from or the people you once knew, you are right back
at that sorry twenty-two year old and it has all been for
nothing.
In all the years that you make it past twenty-two, I know
there will be a time or two that you make it back there again.
That's okay. Every now and then, we need to take a step
back to look at all the progress that we have made. We need
a moment to give thanks for all the help that we had along
our path in life. Staying twenty-two is never okay. Stopping
by every now and then to check ourselves, well it happens,
just remember in life there are rules to live by even as an
adult.