Sometime in your mid-20s—or maybe it’s just me, and I’m projecting—you start to see life with a new pair of eyes (not literally, though that would be so cool for someone with a shitty vision). You’ve been in your twenties for long enough to think you know more than you did at eighteen. And maybe you do. But not in the ways you thought would matter. 

The shift happens in bursts, and often when you’re busy doing something completely unremarkable. It hits you out of nowhere, but somehow, you’re ready for it. It's like you know it’s been in you forever, but you can only see it now. It might happen on a Friday night while you’re sprawled across your bed after a hangout. On a random Monday morning commute. Or on a Saturday night brushing your teeth, staring at your own reflection in the mirror, and... Oh. 

It could come to you in little bits and pieces of unassuming truths. Or, if you still have your way with luck, you get the Big One. Like a doctor just flipped a switch and suddenly your frontal lobe clicks into place, with a mere flick of a finger. You feel every striation etched in the glassy surface of your brain, and just like that, you’re a whole different person. The you from five minutes ago is now just a thing of the past.

You start connecting the dots. The thing that once felt like a sick, itchy lump in your throat, one no amount of belching could scratch, turns out not to be so hard to swallow after all. You feel it pull away, detaching its grip on you. You realize that the things you’ve blamed yourself for weren’t entirely your fault. And even if some of them were, you know that it’s time to move on. You let go of things that once felt so important (even though they never were to begin with).

You’ll figure out that THE thing you regret wasn’t necessarily a bad thing in the grand scheme of things. It might even have been an okay thing. Either way, it doesn’t weigh on you anymore like it used to. The things you used to wish for seem so shallow now. Honestly, you might even feel a little bit of disgust for having even thought of wanting them in the first place.

You finally take a breath, and realize you're not underwater anymore. In fact, you've been standing on dry land this whole time, bracing for a tide that once pulled you a long time ago.

How come it took 25 years? I’ll never know.