Twenty: "Lessons From the Years I Didn't Understand"

Your twenties are supposed to be the years when you figure life out. But what happens when you're barely surviving long enough to understand what life is trying to teach you?

20s: Lessons From the Years I Didn't Understand is a raw and honest collection of poems tracing the journey from age 20 to 29-the years filled with uncertainty, poverty, love, loss, friendship, mistakes, responsibility, and growth.

These poems walk through the nights of reckless adventures and house parties with friends, the struggle of working dead-end jobs while trying to stay in school, and the fear of wondering where the next meal will come from. They explore the pain of making impossible choices, including giving up a firstborn child for adoption and carrying the lifelong question of whether she will one day understand why.

Through heartbreak, regret, broken friendships, family, fatherhood, failure, and moments of hope, the book captures what it feels like to grow up while still trying to figure out who you are.

From 20 to 29, every year leaves something behind-a scar, a lesson, a memory, or a reason to keep going.

This is not a story about having everything figured out.

It is about learning that sometimes you have to get lost before you can find yourself.

These are the lessons I didn't understand when I was living them-but I understand them now.