PLGRM

I have a few people in my life right now who are in their early to mid-20s.

God bless these people. I simply want to take them in my arms and hug them and tell them to chill out cause it’s all gonna be okay. That’s patronizing and I can’t do that, but I wish someone had done that to me when I was that age.

No, that’s wrong. 2023 Landon wishes that would have happened. Early 2000s Landon would have hated whoever did that.

And he would have been right. He wouldn’t know it, but that kind of growing up work is required reading for life, and we should never, ever take it away from anyone.

Our early 20s are a time when we learn some big and important things about ourselves. It’s good, but it’s also very hard. Adulting is not fun sometimes.

One of the things a lot of us learn in our 20s is that we have kind of failed at life. The plan we developed in our brains to avoid the pain that everyone else had to endure did not work. Because of course it didn’t.

And, in those moments, we have choices to make. I remember mine. I remember the ways I needed to course correct. I remember how hard it was. Woof. What a time.

James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem once reflected on exactly this dynamic. Murphy is artistic hero of mine (there was a time when I’d have said LCD Soundsystem was my favorite band). I’m listening to whatever this guy has to say.

And what he has to say is “I was not good at my life. I was bad at it. And I don’t care what you tell me to do [I’ll do it]…I just need to not do this anymore. I need to do something else.”

That’s big. Being able to say – straight up – I am not doing a good job and I am willing to do whatever I need to in order to do it better.

I’ve had to do that at least 2-3 times in my life. It was hard, but worth it. I hope you can find the strength to do that when it’s your turn.