Quarter Life Crisis

Finally, we're here.  What we've been preparing for since childhood: real life.  School and college are behind us.  Life stretches out before us, infinite in its possibilities.  Our generation is unique.  We are no longer expected to find a lifelong career; between 18 and 30 most of us will have already had 7-8 jobs. (1)  We are standing at a cross roads, and it is up to us to decide where we want to take our lives!

Instead of liberating us, however, this freedom sometimes feels heavy.  We are free to choose our own paths, but the signs pointing the way are blank.  We have to navigate the world on our own, and we are afraid.  Our attitudes towards money, work, love, friends, politics, beliefs, they're all changing, and we sometimes feel out of control.  We don't know who we are.  We feel sometimes like maybe we're not good enough.  We feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of life ahead of us.  We quit our job.  We move to a new city.  We get our hearts broken.  We look for answers in a new place.  We constantly think: What does it all mean?  We ask ourselves:  "Am I doing this right?"

This phenomenon is known as the Quarter Life Crisis (QLC) and it has only recently come to the attention of the world. (2)  I became interested in this phenomenon in May of this year.  I have become more and more interested in this because I realize now that I'm going through it, just like many of you.  I am and have always been an optimistic person.  Life has never been able to get me down for long.  So at first I was ashamed of my feelings.  I felt I had somehow let myself down, somehow become someone I didn't want to be.  But I'm no longer concerned about this, and now I want to share.  I quickly found that hiding from the people I love (and who love me) only caused pain, and didn't spare anyone from negativity.  Now I am opening up, now I want you to do the same.  

I want this blog to be a place for people to share their experiences, to vent their frustrations, to express their pain and their fears.  Silence won't help us out of this, it'll only make it bigger.  Post your stories.  Post your regrets.  Post your fears. But I don't want this to be a place of complaining.  Our QLC can be a troubled time of sorrow and drama, or it can be the perfect opportunity for us to grow and find ourselves.  I want this blog to be about hope.  Above all.  So post the beautiful things the Universe sends you to help you through. 

I have named this blog 20-Something Zen because I believe that deep down we all already know the answers to our questions.  I believe that there is a Universal source of wisdom that guides us and if we can realize this, our suffering will vanish.  I also believe that everything that happens to us happens for a reason, and so we can always find meaning, even in the negative things.  However, though I believe the answers are inside of us, I recognize that sometimes we need help in seeing them.  I am not separate from you.  Your pain and your joy are my pain and my joy.  That is why I want to share the signs the Universe has given me, and why I want you to share the signs given to you.  Perhaps I can see myself reflected in the beauty you see in the world.  And in the pain.

Just let go of fear and know we'll all be all right.  And exactly where we need to be.

1. Gray, Keturah, "Quarterlife Crisis Hits Many in Late 20s" ABC News (April 21, 2005),  http://abcnews.com/Business/Careers/story?id=688240.
2. The first book on the subject, "Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in your Twenties" by Alexandra Robbins and Abby Wilner, was published in 2001.