The topic of today's short talk is don't be the last guy to leave the party.
So, this is a message that is specifically addressed to the 20-somethings in the audience.The 20s and in particular your early to mid 20s or a really interesting time in our life because it's probably the chapter of our life that will be most dominated by your friendships.
In many respects it's still a continuation of college. Your peers and your friends play such an enormous and rewarding role in your life and most of your socializing is done in your friendgroup. There's a lot of going out there's, a lot of partying and that's all well and good there's nothing wrong with that It's important to understand however that this doesn't last forever.
When you get to around 28 over the next five years from 28 to 33 your friend group will start to fall apart. This is usually not due to falling outs of any kind, if anything everyone still feels as positively about their friends as ever.
It's just that other parts of life slowly become more important. one person decides to go back to law school, another person moves away for a better job opportunity, yet another person get into a serious relationship and starts having kids.
For better or worse people begin to prioritize other aspects of their lives above their friendships. So, why am i talking about this. have you ever been to a house party ? it's a lot of fun, the music is playing, the drinks are flowing and everyone's having a good time. But then around a certain point of the evening people begin to make their exit.
In the beginning it's just a person here or there then it's a few couples and then there's this mass exodus and like within the space of 20 or 30 minutes the party just dies, almost everyone clears out.
Now, maybe you are having a fantastic time and you're not ready for the night to end. Have you ever not left with that mass exodus ? Have you ever had the experience of being the last guy or girl at the party?.
Chances are you have and chances are it wasn't a pleasant one. The music is now uncomfortably loud, maybe someone's passed out in the corner there's vomit on the couch and the bathroom's a mess and then the sadness sets in.
It's generally not a good experience to be the last person to leave the party and that's because nothing good happens after a certain point in the night.
Now this piece of information is useful for any given saturday night but it's also useful in the context of your 20s as a whole.
So, we can generalize the scope of this piece of advice. The first half of your 20s will be dominated by your friends and fun. But then some people are going to get married and some people are going to get serious about their careers and some people are going to suffer death and loss and then there's going to be this mass exodus.
You don't want to be the last person to leave the party, you don't want to be the xx year old who's still trying to get high and wasted with his friends on the weekend constantly. At that point your friends are gonna have other things to do and frankly so should you.
So, enjoy your time while you can but leave while the getting is still good. hopefully that makes sense.
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