when you're young and "unsuccessful"

In a few months I will be 25. To be honest my whole body shutters at the thought of it...my mind explodes, my legs start to feel numb and my palms start to sweat. To tell you I'm not ready for it, is an understatement. What I really need is for time to pause so I can catch up to the life goals I thought I would have achieved by now.

Everyday I see super successful people that are 17, 18, 19, 20 ... like Billie Eilish, Yara Shahidi, Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Saoirse Ronan...and so on. It really makes me wonder about my life choices and if they were the right ones to make. Looking back at everything I feel like I've always worked really hard, had a job from the age of 12, consistently been a straight A student, always worked on my craft...so where did I go wrong? Could I have worked harder? Could I have done more? Should I have networked more? Should I have tried to get out of my depression faster, since it took so much and so many years (3) away from me? Is it all my fault !? *TAKES A DEEP BREATH AND MEDITATES FOR A MINUTE*

If you're freaking out about your life like me...take a look at these facts:

☆ JK Rowling got the idea for Harry Potter at 25 and got it published at 32

☆ Stan Lee published his first comic book at 39

☆ Steve Carell got The Office at 43

☆ Harrison Ford got Indiana Jones at 35

☆ Viola Davis got her big break on Doubt at 43

☆ Oprah started the Oprah Winfrey Show at 32

☆ Jessica Chastain got her big break at 34

☆ Toni Morrison published her first book at 39

☆ Martha Stewart published her first cookbook at 41

☆ Bob Ross started painting at 41

☆ Samuel L. Jackson became famous at 46

... the list goes on and on.

I did a poll on my IG asking my friends whether they were happy or not with their current life situation, and a lot of them said they are not 100% content. That actually made me really sad and I bet the only reason for their (and my) discontentment is because of some preconceived notion of what our life should look like and where we should be vs. where we are. But after considering all these people above -- who are not just regular celebrities but true legends -- and reading about the struggles they had in their 20s (and even 30s and 40s) ...I felt like a fool for expecting to have life all figured out by now and comparing myself to the exceptional 1%.

I urge myself and all of us to stop with the PSycHoNeSs and find beauty in our current reality. Whatever we're going through is helping us become the person we're meant to be, and that's a FACT. We have to work on not letting society/media get to us - we can't be total sheep to the popular mindset of work non stop and become successful as soon as you possibly can. *This is how capitalism thrives!* I think it's actually really cool when someone is calm about everything. It's a powerful state of being because it takes true confidence and belief in yourself to not question it all - all the time. As I'm slowly getting to that place myself - I pray for others to find peace with their reality as well.