Days Go Bye.

Lately, the days feel like they’re melting into each other. Monday turns into Thursday, and before I can catch my breath, it’s Monday again. Time, which once felt slow and steady, now rushes past like a train I forgot to board. It’s disorienting—terrifying, even.

I sit in my concrete office whenever I am at work, grateful and very blessed, but—no windows, just a single LED light and the hum of my small heater—and my mind drifts to my grandmother. She’s been sick most of her adult life with MS, a neurological autoimmune disease, the kind that quietly worsens under the weight of stress. Stress—the silent killer. The one we ignore until it’s carved its way deep into our bones.

Recently, she told me she wants to move back to Italy. Her MS has progressed, and with it, other health issues have followed. I asked her why now?

She looked at me and said something I’ll never forget:

“When you’re young, you think you have all this time. But I’m turning 65 this year, and I don’t know where the time has gone. All of my hopes and dreams—gone. Now I don’t even know if I’ll make it another 10 years.”

That moment stopped me cold.

She spent her whole life working hard, caring for others, putting her dreams aside—until they simply disappeared. Yes, she’s lived a life. She has had moments of joy, pain, love, and loss. But she never lived her dream. She lived for everyone else. I think of my other grandmother, too. She had dreams of joining the military when she was younger, but a terrible car accident changed everything. The crash left her with a bad leg for the rest of her life, and just like that, her dreams were taken from her. She still lived a life—full in its own ways—but now, she’s sick as well. Cancer. And even with all that she's experienced, she often looks back on what could have been. On the life she imagined, but never got to live.

And I realized... I’m doing the same thing.

I’ve been so focused on everyone else’s needs, on being kind, selfless, empathetic—that I forgot to offer that same grace to myself. I forgot that I deserve care too. And while it’s a beautiful thing to show up for others, it’s dangerous when it means disappearing from your own life, from your own dreams.

I don’t want to wake up at 65, looking back on a life I didn’t truly live.

Our 20s are full of contradictions. You’re told to go to school, but also save money—while drowning in student debt the rest of your life. You’re told to discover who you are, but to follow all the rules of adulthood or risk being seen as lazy and complacent. A waste. You’re expected to enjoy your youth, travel, make memories—yet also work through lunches, skip PTO completely because you have too much work to do, and always be on.

It’s exhausting. It’s confusing. And it makes you feel like you’re behind, no matter what you do.

But the truth is: no one’s life looks the same. Some of my friends are married with beautiful homes. Some are breaking up. Some are 'funemployed' and have moved across the country. Some are pursuing their dreams of acting. Others are climbing the corporate ladder while completely drowning in debt. Some crave routine and like the fact that they know exactly what they will be doing every day for the rest of their life. Others chase freedom. And every single one of them is figuring it out, just like me, just like YOU.

So here’s what I’ve learned—and what I’m choosing to believe:

It doesn’t matter what the world says your 20s should look like. What matters is what you want. What makes you come alive. What sets your soul on fire.

Don’t live your life for someone else’s comfort, approval, or expectations.

Strive to embrace our experiences fully, so we can create joyful memories rather than letting regrets linger, much like my grandmothers have experienced.

Be boldly, authentically, and unapologetically yourself. The person God created you to be.

Because if God placed a dream in your heart, He meant for you to pursue it. He placed it there on purpose—for a purpose.

Chase it. Live it. Don’t wait until it is too late.

Be brave, Be bold, and as always Stay radiant :)