Quarter-life Crisis

It was very easy to agree with the points raised in the book “`What Is the Quarter-life Crisis?” only because there have been sufficient personal encounters with people who are in this stage.

Some people worry too much about how far they have come, how much further should they go, and how can they make life better (among other issues). The most common denominator of people who are entertaining these questions in their head are individuals aged 21 to 29 years old. These are people who may be done with school and trapped in the labor force or commercial playground; or continuing graduate studies for the purpose of advancing their career. Perhaps dissatisfaction and confusion are the two strongest components of quarter-life crisis. Dissatisfaction sets in when one realizes that life could get better for them, except they couldn’t pinpoint exactly what is wrong.

There are many possible root causes of dissatisfaction: tiresome job, insufficient pay, failed relationships, competition with other people, etc. It may seem easy to presume that these issues are not faced only by people who are 21-29 years old. Everyone deals with the issues mentioned here. The only difference is that dissatisfaction stabs so deep the first time. And commonly, people who experience quarterlife crisis get it when they are 21-29 years old. Many more episodes of dissatisfaction over many things will follow. But it’s all never going to kick as hard as it did the first time. Hence, quarterlife crisis is not a simple problem to deal with for anyone.

The other component, confusion, settles in the mind of a person with quarterlife crisis, mostly because too many people are trying to run their life, offering their piece of mind even when unsolicited. Parents sometimes help aggravate the quarterlife crisis because of the pressure they put upon a child. For instance, some parents keep on bugging their child to get a job, get married, fix their life, etc. Confusion is the result of too much pressure, too many instructions and a weariness that has started to build up years ago.

Not everyone is experiencing a serious case of quarter-life crisis. Others are lucky, while some others are not. A person is more vulnerable to quarterlife crisis when s/he is not determined on what s/he really wants to do with his/her life. For the others who has gotten this figured out, quarter life is not about to happen.