Good pep talk for 26-year-olds and also everyone else
Aaaand we’re back!
So technically, we read Joan Juliet Beck’s Refinery essay Advice To My 26-Year-Old Self while we were on break (especially bc ya girl was celebrating her own newly 26-yo self!), but we think it’s beautifully relevant no matter the day (or age, obvi).
At first glance, you wouldn’t be faulted for assuming this was one of those cliché maxim-packed pieces that Lauren Conrad would fill out for Seventeen every other issue, because like, yeah ok “slow down,” “smell the roses,” “generally avoid schedule 1 drugs” whatever, we’ve all heard it before.
But stay with us on this: this essay feels good and fresh and smart, and when we’re all basically bbs in an industry that operates a bajillion mph, it’s never irrelevant to remember that A) there’s a long game to all of this, and that B) if we’re taking care of ourselves and standing up for our shit and tinkering around with weird hobbies, that’s already 99% doing the most important work.