"You're young. It kind of comes with the territory. I was in the military, by the time I was your age." Actually almost ten years younger, but she'd leave that to the side. "And I still managed to fuck things up. But you do change, these fuck-ups help you grow as a human being. Your twenties are basically fuck it all up territory. But then there is the rest of your life." She used her fingers as a scale of measurement when she referred to his twenties, her thumb and forefinger about an inch apart. Then spread her arms wide when she referred to the rest of his life.
Shepard sat up straighter, forcing her shoulders back, so that they would crack. "Whatever is happening now, back at your home, isn't your defining moment. It feels like hell, I know." She didn't exactly have it as bad as he did, but she did know how shitty it felt. "I had my defining moment a month after I turned 30." It was a second one... but she left that out.