the quarter-life crisis

from www.cds.caltech.edu
Ref : http://www.cds.caltech.edu/~shane/text/quarterlifecrisis.html

It is when you stop going along with the crowd and start realizing thatthere are a lot of things about yourself that you didn't know and may ormay not like. You start feeling insecure and wonder where you will be in ayear or two, but then get scared because you barely know where you are now.

You start realizing that people are selfish and that, maybe, those friendsthat you thought you were so close to aren't exactly the greatestpeople you have ever met and the people you have lost touch with are someof the most important ones. What you do not realize is that they arerealizing that too and are not really cold or catty or mean or insincere,but that they are as confused as you.

You look at your job. It is not even close to what you thought you would bedoing or maybe you are looking for one and realizing that you are going tohave to start at the bottom and are scared.

You miss the comforts of college, of groups, of socializing with the samepeople on a constant basis. But then you realize that maybe they weren't sogreat after all.

You are beginning to understand yourself and what you want and do not want.Your opinions have gotten stronger. You see what others are doing and findyourself judging a bit more than usual because suddenly you realize thatyou have certain boundaries in your life and add things to your list ofwhat is acceptable and what is not. You are insecure and then secure.You laugh and cry with the greatest force of your life. You feel alone andscared and confused. Suddenly change is the enemy and you try and cling onto the past with dear life but soon realize that the past is driftingfurther and further away and there is nothing to do but staywhere you are or move forward.

You get your heart broken and wonder how someone you loved could dosuch damage to you or you lay in bed and wonder why you can't meet anyonedecent enough to get to know better. You love someone but maybe lovesomeone else too and cannot figure out why you are doing this because youare not a bad person.

One night stands and random hook ups start to look cheap and gettingwasted and acting like an idiot starts to look pathetic. You go through thesame emotions and questions over and over and talk with your friends aboutthe same topics because you cannot seem to make a decision.

You worry about loans and money and the future and making a life foryourself and while wining the race would be great, right now you'd justlike to be a contender!

What you may not realize is that everyone reading this relates to it. Weare in our best of times and our worst of times, trying as hard as we canto figure this whole thing out.