7 Chances You Only Get In Your 20s, So Take Them While You Can

Your 20s is the time to get that apartment in the city with a few roommates. Since you started watching reruns of Friends, you've been dreaming about one day living in a cute studio with your bestie and ordering pizza on the weekends. Sure, in reality it might not be all fun and games, and they never show the characters paying the rent checks in sitcoms. But, now more than ever you have to seize the opportunity to live with your best friends and make some memories.

Soon enough, you'll all be moved out or getting places with your significant others. Life comes at you fast that way, so don't miss a second of "adulting" now before you truly become an "adult."

When will you ever have this much spare time again? You may be looking at your planner right now and thinking that there's no room to even grab a cup of coffee in the morning, let alone travel. But, I promise you that where there's a will, there's a way.

Your 20s is the only time you'll really get the chance to drop everything and explore the world. You have the ability to take a gap year, or maybe get a visa and work abroad for a while. If you really want this to happen, then make it happen! You'd regret missing out on the opportunity for sure. Not to mention, you never know what doors will open for you in other places.

Every true traveler should put roots in a city abroad for at least a little while — and now is the time to do it. Yes, you could pick your family up and move with them to Europe for a year. It's always been a dream of mine to do that, just so that my kids can one day experience other cultures, and not wait until college like I did. But, there's a lot of logistics that are involved, and so your 20s is the time to trust yourself and just go.

Life is meant to be an adventure, and nothing will ever compare to the year you spent in Paris. You'll pass down the stories for generations to come, and probably inspire yourself along the way. Sounds sweet, huh?

Being in your 20s means you get to be a little selfish. You get to figure out what you want, and chase after it. This may be as simple as pursuing your dreams and passions, or as complicated as standing up for yourself and your feelings. It's going to feel odd and uncomfortable at first, but it's also OK.

Just be sure you're not stepping on anyone else's feelings too hard along the way. After all, there's a difference between putting yourself first and truly disregarding the people around you. Try to find the line, and then take the chance where you make yourself a priority.

You'll likely have lots of chances to forgive yourself in life, but your 20s is when you get to learn exactly how to do it. The reality is you'll make a thousand mistakes during this decade of your life, and that's OK. You're human, and nobody figured out how to be an adult without messing up a bit, too. You may be a flakey friend, or just entirely fail at launching your new business. Learn from those situations, but also take away the skill of forgiving yourself.

Without those mistakes, you wouldn't be able to succeed down the road. Not to mention, they always tend to make life more interesting. What would you rather do: try and fail, or never try and know that you could've succeeded? The answer seems pretty simple to me.

Your 20s is when you get the chance to see people's true colors. Everyone in your life is learning and growing into who they want to be, and you may realize that some friends who have been in your life for a while don't deserve to make it to the next chapter.

These are the girls who are petty, or just get jealous any time something good happens for you. They're the friends who cancel on your coffee dates for another plan, or the people who have lowered your self-esteem. Going forward, you want to surround yourself with the people who lift you up and not tear you down. So, take the chance in your 20s to ditch the toxic ones who are better left in your rearview mirror.

Love is complicated. No matter how many relationships you'll go through, every single one will teach you a new lesson about love. It's just sort of the way it goes, especially in your 20s. You've likely watched a thousand romantic comedies by now where the girl and the guy drop everything in life to follow their heart. They put aside logic and what they've always known for this feeling that comes with no guarantees. It's truly all very Romeo and Juliet, if you ask me.

But, they're taking a bold chance that a lot of us get in our 20s, but might miss out on. It's so easy to go with what you know, and you should always follow your gut reactions. But, don't discredit the beauty of following your heart.