What Advice Would You Give Your 25-Year-Old Self?

Dear E. Jean: I’m 25, and I just left a job as project manager at a major fashion label to begin part-time at an even bigger label—yet I feel like I’m floundering. Looking back, E. Jean, if you could give your 25-year-old self any advice, what would it be? —Is This All There Is?

Miss Is, My Kumquat: Bah! I wish my 25-year-old self could give me advice. At 25 I was such a magnificent fuck-up! Tell me “No, no, no”—I’d do it anyway! I didn’t give two flying figs about “productivity,” laughed at anything “practical,” squandered opportunities, and celebrated every night with ice cream and cake, because I was living deep and sucking down the icing of life! The power of 25 is not that we know, but that we don’t know and want to find out. I love my gritty, comical age, but underneath, I’m 25 and living life at its zenith! Trust yourself, Miss Is. It’s those moments when you’re floundering that turn out to be important. As old Ralphy Emerson said: “Power ceases in the instant of repose; it resides in the moment of transition….”

This letter is from the Ask E. Jean Archive, 1993-2017. Send questions to E. Jean at [email protected].