The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter—And How to Make the Most of Them Now

by Meg Jay

Sometimes I think I should just go back to graduate school for my PhD because it would sound better and I could get A’s again. I don’t know how to get an A in my twenties.

Things get better only when we let new and better people in. Things get better when we let new and better people care about us or love us, or when we at least listen to—and believe—what they have to say.

I told Danielle how the twentysomething brain reacts to surprise and criticism—usually emotionally and strongly and negatively—and how this makes many twentysomethings feel like, as one colleague says, leaves in the wind. A good day at work lifts us high in the air while a reprimand from a boss whips us down to the ground. As criticism blows us every which way, we feel—at work and in love—only as good as the last thing that happened.