Being 26

The worst thing about being 26 wasn't the overpriced one bedroom apartment, the two part time jobs, the feeling that she'd wasted her college years or the fear that the online master's degree that she was getting would be useless: it was the sense of relief that washed over her with each paycheck. If there was one thing she'd gotten good at, it was being poor. That, more than anything else most days, disgusted her. To the best of her knowledge, she was working harder than her managers. If not harder, at least longer hours. By the time she would clock out that week, she would have logged 61 hours across her two jobs. 35 hours at one and 26 at the other. Neither enough at one job to get benefits. Some nights she only got 5 hours of sleep before getting to go back to work. And one manager had had the balls to call her a slow worker. The same manager that had hired her.

Except that instead of a dog, it's two cats. And instead of this ending as a teenager,
it's the song that never ends.

The hard thing about  being 26 was trying to make new friends after moving to a new area. She looked much younger than 26 and yet couldn't relate to the recent high school grads. She was happily living with her fiance and couldn't understand her coworkers relationship problems. She bought her hair clip at Icing but was spending her hours daydreaming about her upcoming wedding.

This is how I feel when I try to dress up.

The okay thing about being 26 was that she'd finally amassed so much time on the planet that she was alright at accomplishing many daily and work-related tasks. She was adept at paying her bills on time (as her high credit score would show) but her apartment complex's four setting washer and dryers alluded her (as her many shrunken shirts would show).

Story of my life.

The good thing about being 26 was the confidence that allowed her to solve problems for customers at work easily and got her two comment cards within two months of being hired (a thing that never occurred in her previous two and a half years) The confidence in herself that helped her tune out the criticisms that she knew to be false.

The best part about being 26 was accepting that she'd accomplished a lot in her short time and that it was okay that she wasn't "where she thought she'd be". The best thing about being 26 was to finally fall asleep next to the love of her life every night. Granted, some nights he'd beat her to bed by three hours, but at least he'd warmed it up. The best thing about being 26 was looking to the future and knowing she wasn't facing it alone.

We're in this thing together.