Twenty Biggest Fears of Our Twenties

Last week we looked our favorite villains, and it got us thinking about what really scares us in real life. No we’re not talking about the monthly panic attacks we have or that spider that’s stalking us throughout the house, but those real bone deep fears we often hide from the world. The ones that media likes to neglect to mention when they’re accusing millennials of being lazy and narcissists who are delaying marriage, not buying houses, and all around screwing up the world as we know it.

So today you may ask us “Why so serious?” but we’re letting you in on our biggest fears of our twenties.

1. Will my college education have any value after graduation?

2. Will I ever earn enough money to buy a house?

3. How can I think about marrying and having kids when my job security is so uncertain I don’t know if I can afford myself in a year?

4. As polarizing big party politics increasingly stagnate our government, will there even be a nation left for us to inherit?

5. That shocking realization that you will probably be poorer than your parents.

6. Health Insurance. How terrifying is this? Extremely.

7. Will I be able to live up to the potential that my parents see in me?

8. How can I draw work/life boundaries at my job and with my boss in an economy where there are hundreds who could replace me and be willing to work 24/7?

9. How do my parents magically know the answer to all car/taxes/federal/house/electrical/useful information questions? Is it even possible for me to learn this magic?

10. What if I hate my job, and have now wasted 7 years of higher education and thousands of dollars on the wrong profession?

11. What if when I actually pop out kids, I’m a terrible parent? If my past history as a fish owner is at all indicative of my future parenting skills, my children are screwed.

12. What if I have to go on welfare?

13. I’m terrified by the prospect of opening up a credit card and being swamped under credit card debt.

14. Will I ever get to travel, or will that travel fund perpetually be paid to student loans?

15. My parents keep telling me I need to start thinking about saving for retirement now. I’m too scared of the present to save for the future!

16. Is there actually a definitive point when I have to worry about being alone forever?

17. What if my proverbial biological clock never starts ticking? Do I really not want kids?

18. Is there a point where I have to actually admit I might never achieve my dreams? What if our deepest goals and wishes for ourselves really just aren’t what life has planned?

19. Is there something wrong with me that I get no personal satisfaction out of having a career and that I secretly just want to get married and have kids?

20. Facebook Guilt: Seeing 80+% of your high school friends getting engaged, getting married, and having children, buying new cars and houses while you’re still trying to just get by as an “adult.”

So what’s your bogey man under your twenty-something anxiety? Tweet us @litdarling