There’s a lot of advice on how to get through puberty gracefully. Or how to enter your 30s with more peace.

But no one ever warns you about how your 23s will drive you insane.

If you were born and raised in a decent environment. One that gave you the chance to be a kid when you were a kid. One that let you be a teenager who could try a bunch of things even if you failed. Then chances are, you’ll be hit with a second identity crisis at 23. I call it social confusion.

At 23, you’ve normally just graduated college. Maybe you have a job, maybe you don’t. But that’s not the point. What makes everything complicated is the bachelor’s degree that just got added to the end of your name.

That new title isn’t just black and white on paper. It’s a social weight you have to carry overnight. Paying for your sibling’s school, saving up for marriage, covering the house bills, handling paperwork at the local office, or dealing with a death in the family. All of it suddenly becomes your problem. And you’re the one who has to solve it.

Even though you’re still the same you from yesterday. The one who still hangs out late with friends. The one whose biggest problem was still figuring out what food to order.

And what makes it worse. Biologically, you’re actually not ready to handle all of this. The rational part of your brain isn’t even fully developed yet. You realize something’s wrong. But you don’t know how to fix it. You don’t have the experience. You don’t know how the world works yet. So all you see are problems. Without understanding the cause, let alone the way out.

So if you’re in this phase right now, be patient. Learn a lot, meet people, and listen. Hold on.

Slowly, everything will start to look clearer. And one night, you’ll realize that you’ve made it through all of it.