Monday 19 August 2013

The Quarter Life Crisis


Somewhere between 25 and 30 years of age, one begins to do a lot of thinking. Is this job what I really want to do for my whole life? Is this person I am with the person I want to be with forever? Am I truly happy? Those deep life questions that rarely have an immediate answer. You stop the aimless wandering of youth and want to stride more purposefully, even though you're yet to know which direction you're heading. 

It does seem that we're spoilt as a generation. We have more gender equality, more disposable income, the capacity to find new careers, the opportunity to travel to virtually anywhere in the world. The older generation would certainly find our haphazard way of living selfish but I'm sure they would have liked to be given these choices as well. And that's just it, there are just so MANY choices for us. It's intimidating.  

In the past few years, many of the Gen Y people I know have made radical life decisions. They said 'fuck it' and took on new careers, carried through creative ideas, started businesses, had a family and a lot have taken on the idea to travel. We are all now officially adults. And just as we're realising that we're adults we're panicking that at this very point in time we may not be the person we were hoping we'd be.

Am I the person I want to be? Absolutely not. But I am more so than what I was last year and the year before that. In fact if I met the person I was five years ago, I'd probably be very annoyed with her. But that's a good thing. This continual shedding of one's shell. If at 28 I can look back and see progress, I'm looking forward to a similar reflection at 35, and 50. And hopefully when I die at a nice ripe old age of 90 I can look back without regrets. I think 62 more years is plenty of time to do everything I wanted to do. Surely.

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