Why the Crisis?

Ah, quarter-life crisis! While it seems absolutely ridiculous for a person in their mid-20's to be obsessing about their age, we all go through it in our own fashion. Some boys and girls turn to casual sex, drugs, compensatory cars...while others turn introspective and philosophical while still honing their neuroses to a fine point. (The better to stab at other minds with!) Why does this happen? Well! It's the loss of training wheels, in my opinion.

Think about it. For the first 18-22 years of life we're set on a pretty rigid track; school and recreational activities give our lives structure while we're still shielded from reality by parents or academia. The first couple years of "real world" experience can be jarring and exhilarating. Free! Free at last! Free to stay up late, make mistakes, pay bills...all the good things. And for a couple years we roll in that freedom like happy puppies do on interesting smells. But we've still been trained to look for our track. Where is it? What's the next step? The problem is that the mid-20's is when we've reached the "under-construction" end of the line and it's our turn to drive some spikes. Now that we're looking for structure we have two options: 1) be original and set a unique life course, or 2) connect to the old rail-way with stop-overs in marriage and baby town.

So that's why my 20-something girlfriends look at babies and imagine their own uterus walking around on crutches; or why at weddings the bridesmaids smile in that wooden, should-have-been-me way. They're feeling the pressure of having a life without direction. It's time to figure things out! The quarter-life crisis mirrors the mid-life in many ways and I think the reasons are the same. While the mid-lifers have reached the end of the baby-line, the quarter-lifers are toeing it cautiously.

So that's what this blog is dedicated to: exploring the quarter-life crisis. If you've got any stories, I'd love to hear them. And remember, it's not actually a quarter-life crisis, because chances are we won't live that long!