Three Things I Wish I Had Known in My 20’s: Brooke Jordan

When I first received an e-mail about DC-area The Thread Truck, I knew I had to post something about it! Essentially, it is a mobile fashion boutique or a food trailer with clothes, instead of, tasty treats. Pretty cool, right?! I know there are a few around Austin, but I haven’t had a chance to check them out yet.

Anyways, today, The Thread Truck’s co-founder, Brooke Jordan, shares some wisdom with us. Before diving into this fashion endeavour, Brooke served as a Digital Marketing Specialist at numerous political publications in DC. Also, for 7 years, she was an Account Executive at several radio stations in the area.

So, if you live in DC, make sure you check out The Thread Truck at Rosslyn Business Improvement District. It is located there for Fashion Truck Fridays!

Now, check out Brooke’s “3 Things” below:

Listen more often than you speak

I hate the old adage “Children should be seen and not heard”. It’s crap. Children are adorable say fantastically funny things! They should never stop speaking!

Do you know who shouldn’t speak? People in their 20s. They aren’t adorable and they usually have no idea what they’re talking about. And even worse; they think that they do. I was guiltier of this than most – I’ve always thought that I was an expert in the topic at hand. Only now – in my mid-thirties – am I realizing how wrong I have been.

If I could do it over again I would spend all of my time meeting people outside of my immediate social circle, asking them questions, and actually listening to the answers. Learning about what they do and why they do it, what motivates them, what their goals are, how they plan to achieve those goals is incredibly useful when it comes to forming your own goals and figuring out how to meet them. Also asking people how they grew up and listening to people’s background stories can help humble you and learn to embrace differences in people. This can be one of the hardest things about life in your twenties – just because someone does something differently than you and your family did it doesn’t mean that they’re doing it wrong. Ask them! Learn from them! And keep your judgment to yourself… until you’re 32… then judge all you’d like!

Don’t make any big life decisions that can’t be easily undone

Want to take a cool new job in another city? Or country? Do it! Explore! If it doesn’t work out – break your lease and move back home – no big deal! Wanna run away to Mexico with a hot surfer for a while? Awesome! When he eventually cheats on you with your hot surfer chick neighbor, call your parents and ask to stay at their place until you find a job and an apartment back in the states. Wanna start a bikini car wash with your girlfriends? Rent some space in a parking lot and wash those cars until you realize that your friends aren’t terribly reliable and are a little lazy and then go back to that pharmaceutical sales job until your next venture.

But, don’t buy a house in that new city/country because being stuck in a job you end up hating when the real estate bubble bursts and you have no ability to sell that house is not a good place to be. And don’t marry that hot surfer dude – because a year’s worth of lawyers and dividing up assets is no way to spend a year in your twenties. And don’t take out a loan to purchase a state of the art automated car wash system because spending ten years paying it back is definitely not a good time.

Your twenties should be spent trying and failing – but make sure when you fail (because you will) that you’ve left room to pick yourself back up again. Test things out, be a little afraid of commitment, and make sure you can easily pivot to something else should the opportunity arise. Your twenties are your time to jump around and explore and try new things, not get yourself stuck in an emotional/financial/legal conundrum.

Embrace where you are in life! Don’t rush to be anywhere else.

Your twenties can be an overwhelming time but they can be an amazing time! You are bombarded with choices and freedom and it can all be very heavy but try to take a step back, breathe deeply, and recognize what a great opportunity lies ahead. Allow yourself to learn by living and testing and trying new things! Recognize that living a fun and exciting life means not getting so wasted that you can’t remember the night before, but instead trying an exotic alcohol that you’ve never tasted before. That you need to respect yourself and your body and your sexuality, but remember that in your twenties you probably look the best you’ll ever look and it’s ok to embrace that and be proud of it and use it! You should date often and lots of different people – it’ll help you learn what you are and are not looking for in a long term partner. You should learn about all different kinds of careers and learn what kind of work best fits your skill set, but remember not to burn any bridges while doing so. You are probably going to need these folks and their help once you’ve found a direction and are working your way up.

The point of all of this is to embrace this time in your life! Be happy, be good to yourself and those around you, and never stop learning! Oh! And most importantly – sign up for a 401K immediately.

This article was crowd sourced from The Thread Truck facebook page – suggestions were taken from lots of shoppers, but I want to specifically thank a few who inspired these three points:

Jen Bankarski, Caitlin Rettaliata, Claire Carberry, Crystal Velsquez, Katie Gallagher Bratt, Lisa Greenfield Strauss, Kevin Connor, Sara Agre, Royela Joyce, Emily Leffler-Schulman, Erin Voden