Last year, a good friend of mine had what some might call a break down. One day, her life seemed to be headed in the right direction and the next day, everything just felt out of control. Instead of being the confident girl who lived by her own set of rules and didn’t care what society thought, she became obsessed with the fact that she was in her mid twenties without a dream job or a husband.
Even though she had a great job, a great apartment, traveled frequently, and was surrounded by friends who loved her, the constant Facebook updates of babies, weddings, and dream jobs eventually weighed down on her until she started feeling as if she was behind in life.
While this felt so out of character for her, it wasn’t the first time I had seen or heard something like this. It seems like a lot of people in their mid twenties start to feel left behind and then have to deal with how to handle that situation. Some people get depressed, some get stressed out and start trying to “catch up”, and others start to act out of character and freak out a bit.
This is what I call, “The Quarter Life Crisis”. We are too far from twenty to act like we don’t know any better but too far from thirty to really know any better. Many twenty -somethings have not yet landed their dream job and many don’t even know what that dream job is. Many people in their mid 20’s are not married with a white picket fence and many of them don’t want to be. However, we let society tell us that we don’t have it together because we don’t have it all figured out yet.
If you feel like you are on the verge of a Quarter Life Crisis, there is something immensely important that you need to remember: Everything will be fine. Just because other people may seem like they have perfect lives, doesn’t mean that they do. Even if they do have amazing lives, it doesn’t mean that you are running behind in any way. Your life is your own and you will have your own set of trials and triumphs. The low moments will make the high moments feel so much higher and working hard to get the things you want out of life will make them all that much more enjoyable. Life isn’t a race and no one is keeping score. Be the best version of yourself that you can be today and strive to be a better you tomorrow.
