There's Something Different About 27 🎂 (#34)
What Crossing into Indisputable Adulthood Feels Like
Hello!
Welcome to issue #34 of Long Way Home, where I explore topics that help us feel better, think more clearly, and empower us to produce our best work, whatever that work may be. Today's issue is going to be a bit different, given that today (yes, May 12th) is my 27th birthday.
Unlike each previous newsletter, I'm not going to share a podcast, article, or video with you this week. Work has been taking up most of my time lately and nothing I consumed knocked my socks off. As I respect your time, I don’t want to pedal anything around that isn’t going to wow you.
Let's get right to it.
There's Something Different About 27
We're apparently old enough to drive safely at 16, make informed decisions about our elected officials at 18, consume alcohol responsibly at 19 (or 21 in the States) and choose a career path by the time we complete undergrad at 22.
At all those milestones, I didn't feel particularly different. Even at 25. A quarter century. It felt like a major milestone, but there wasn't an enormous shift in how I saw myself.
But here I am, at 27, and the world does, in fact, seem radically different. I'm trying to understand why.
"For My Age"
I didn't feel like an adult at 18, or 21, or 25, but something about 27 really makes me feel like the world expects something new from me. Until now, I've generally done a pretty good job—for my age. Professionally, extra-curricularly, personally. I've been told I'm mature for my age all my life.
Now, suddenly, nothing I accomplish will be evaluated through that self-serving lens. In other words, I can no longer throw my age around in hopes of getting a few extra points for a job well done or as an excuse for a subpar performance. 27 year-olds accomplish spectacular feats all the time.
If I start a billion-dollar company? Record a Grammy-winning album? Win a Nobel prize? Retire my parents? All routinely done by 27 year-olds. At this age, my output will now be evaluated purely on its own merit. How much my age favourably warps others' perceptions of my accomplishments now slowly diminishes to nothing.
My point is at some stage, our age stops being seen as a handicap. In my eyes, 27 is that tipping point. Now, I feel this pressure to be good, period. No qualifiers. No excuses for mediocrity.
Here's an example: Christopher Paolini wrote the first book of the Inheritance Cycle, Eragon, while still in high school. By the time he was 19, he was already a New York Times bestselling author. Eragon is a fantastic introduction to fantasy novels for young teenagers. I loved the series myself. But Eragon has its criticisms.
It's slightly derivative, borrowing heavily from existing high fantasy themes, and lacks the narrative complexity of other ambitious projects. At the end of the day, however, we excuse the book's shortcomings and hail it as an accomplishment because it was written by a teenager. If a 45 year-old wrote Eragon, we may never have even heard of it.
There's a sadness, I think, in no longer getting the benefit of the doubt that comes along with youthfulness. It feels like being thrust into the world's harshness without training wheels. It feels like shedding an existential naivety and recognizing there's no magical moment where I'm rescued and it all begins to make sense. This is it. Real life is happening every second of every day. There is no next act anymore.
Empowered
In a way, moving through the world without the safety net of youth as an excuse for mediocrity or carelessness is empowering. I'm old enough to do whatever I want, and people will generally take me more seriously. I've collected enough valuable experiences that my opinions have weight, and I've failed enough to have meaningful goals with well thought-out plans.
In a lot of ways, I'm in my physical, emotional, and intellectual prime. My age can no longer hold me back. I finally have the tools, more so than ever before, to realize lofty dreams.
Maybe there's a way for me to hold onto my child-like sense of wonder and curiosity for the world while leaving behind my self-limiting childishness. Maybe I can go on feeling like a child does, while thinking as adults do. Maybe figuring that out is the secret nobody tells us.
Here's to seeing myself as a fully-formed adult, destined for great, great things.
Youthfully,
Vandan🏡
@vandan_jhaveri