Investing in Me: How I'm Prioritizing Self-Care and Personal Growth in My 20s

mood. and that’s on self-love.

Last Updated: October 2024

I could and would definitely make “dating” a topic of this series, however, I am not dating - actually, I’m dating myself. 

It seems obvious that “dating” would be a topic in a series regarding living life in your 20s, but we gotta keep you on ya toes. JK, it’s really just that, at this moment, dating is not for me. 

Between being a content creator, while actively being a full-time corporate baddie, it’s a lot. I’d lowkey be at a gamble with my time: how do I make time for myself, time for dating, all on top of my work and passions?

I’m not opposed to dating - I definitely think meeting new people, flirting, getting dined out, and all of that sh*t, is super fun and holds a lot of value, but that sh*t lowkey be a lot of work, ya know? I feel like I’m at a point in my life where I want to be single and want to date myself. 

What I’m learning about myself

Learning about myself means investing time in my own work and my own passions. 

I wouldn’t be opposed to going on a date - I’d be more opposed to like… continually talking to someone… and them having my number. I just want to be #unbothered. I can’t give ample time or energy to someone else right now, so why put myself out there like that? 

I’m tapping into a lot of self-reflection and healing at this time, which is helping with self-discovery. This, in itself, requires a lot of time and energy. 

I’ve come to learn that I love learning. I have honestly been missing school - I like having open dialogue that deepens critical thinking and opens your mind to different perspectives - not only does it help you learn about different topics in general, but it helps you understand where your perspectives/values lie. It also helps you to have an open-mind and just constantly think about the world around you. It helps with your critical thinking. 

See, b!tch, merely speaking of being critical and deep thinkers allows the scholarly writing to pour out. 

But, back to self-reflection: I’m realizing all of these things about myself where I just want to continue to go down that rabbit hole for the time being. 

“yeAh, bUt wHat iF yOu mEeT SomEoNe?” 

Well, b!tch, that’s a big “what if” and something that we’ll figure out if that were to happen and when it does happen - bottom line is, i’m just not actively participating in the dating. 

Further lonesome thoughts

It’s not even that I don’t want to date LMAO, I just want to shift my focus to myself right now because 1) I love learning more about myself and 2) I got sh*t to work on. Like I said, being a full-time corporate baddie while being a content creator, girrrrllll, there’s only so much time in a day. With my down time, I’d rather spend it on taking myself out, reading, writing, working out, etc. I like being single right now and having all hours, minutes, days, thinking about myself. Circling back, it’s just not feasible to give someone else time and energy when I’m this invested in myself. 

So I just think that right now, I’m dating myself and loving my life. Thank you. 

xoxo,
kaels
too bad ain’t me<3

Lowkey epiphany: every new period of my life, I feel as if I go through some sort of phase of self-love and self-reflection before everything else falls into place. 

I’m saying this because when I started at a new middle school, I found my style, my vibe, my friends, from mostly being to myself at first, learning more about what I like, exploring new things, before “dating” people. (“dating” because it’s middle school, b!tch, like be so fr). And then same with high school and college. It was all at the beginning - the transition period - where I did that self-love and self-reflection work before investing time in the dating world. I need to be aware of where I am at this point of my life before allowing others deeply in. 

I guess I'm just subconsciously aware of what it means to start a new period of your life: there’s a lot of changes ahead, but first and foremost, a lot of individual changes within these transitions. That means, you’re re-learning and re-discovering who you are at this new point in your life with new life lessons and possible new perspectives of how you view yourself and the world around you. Life changes and life transitions are important and necessary, but so is the self-reflection that comes from within. 

Wow, look at that: knowledge. #KnowledgeIsPower