The Quarter Life Celebration

posted 5th December 2010    Written by: Lindsey    CATEGORY: Lindsey, Quarterlife Crisis, Season 3

I remember reading something about this thing called a Quarter Life Crisis a few years ago and scoffing at the idea. I KNEW what I was doing. I was on a fast-track path to career success, so a little thing like the QLC would definitely not be something in my world.

Hah! The term stuck around in my head, so that when I suddenly realized I was entering crisis mode, I immediately googled “Quarter Life Crisis” and found a slew of blogs and articles from equally confused twenty-somethings. The QLC is very real for many people, especially those without a clear vision of their future. (So… everyone?) We’ve been told how to live our lives far beyond our teens (go to college, get a degree, get a job, climb the ladder, buy a house, etc, etc, etc), and the second there is time to question this, and realize a U-turn is in order, we’re so far along a path it’s painful to turn around. Change is hard, especially when it involves changing your whole life perspective.

Despite feeling down and out for much of my crisis – I am incredibly grateful for it. I don’t have everything figured out, and I’m still unsure where I plan to go with my life. But I do know that this crisis, or whatever it is, allowed me to stop. Finally just STOP driving myself crazyface towards a career. And think: What do I want? What do I value? What experiences and achievements are actually going to matter when I’m 30? 40? 50?

I’m so incredibly grateful that our generation has the opportunity to assess our lives. Even if we have to call it something kind of cheesy.

I have been living “on the fringe” for almost two years now. I do what I want (snowboarding at world-class resorts! living on the beach in Hawaii! sailing around the Caribbean!) and while it is totally awesome, I typically find myself in situations where I’m explaining my story to people in their middle age. “Do it while you’re young.” They ALWAYS say that. As if it’s inevitable that I’ll soon find myself in their shoes… bogged down by a mortgage, a million screaming kids and a mediocre job that barely breaks even.

I always smirk to myself at that comment. Of course, I have no idea what my future holds. But I do know that I have been given the chance to evaluate my life, and I can consciously choose to live my awesome life, however I want to. And this evaluation was only possible through my dear QLC.

But, I do think crisis is a harsh word for a time that allows deep introspection and real, legitimate life-affirming moments.

The crisis occurs when you get that rude awakening of “Hey. This is my life. Like, right now, my LIFE is at stake and if I don’t shake some shit up right NOW then I am going to be miserable.” But if you allow yourself to get stuck in feeling like everything is in crisis – this is where the negative, woe-is-me type stuff starts to come up.

I declassified myself as being in crisis when I realized I was using the term to take the blame off myself. I was stuck in a rut and calling it my Quarter Life Crisis when really I should have been celebrating. Celebrating my redefined future! Celebrating the fact that I was making choices that I was proud of! Celebrating that I finally noticed my choices, and put my feelings into the mix.

The QLC is a very real thing, that is elusive in many ways. I’ve read a few articles and they LOVE to pull out the stats about how “far behind” Gen Y is with their milestones (move out, go to college, get a job, get married, have a kid) and that OH MY GOD in the 60s, 77% of women completed all “adult” milestones before age 25 while now, in the 2000s it’s a mere 30%.

Like, how relevant is that? In the 1960s what ELSE was there to do besides get married and have babies? What if I never get married? Does that mean I’m in an eternal QLC? Umm, no, it means that the people writing these articles have NO IDEA how to relate to a real 20-something beyond an irrelevant statistic.

Reality: we live in a time where we have more freedom than ever before to choose our paths. To do the things that make us happy. To live any kind of life we want. You might be at Stratejoy because you are afflicted by this Quarterlife Crisis, but my advice? Get over the crisis part. Celebrate the fact that YOU are finally standing up for your happiness. You are ready to make big scary changes. You are listening to your heart, and following your dreams.

This is a Quarter Life Celebration, people.

{{ photo credit : bfick }

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Comments (14)

14 Responses to “The Quarter Life Celebration”

  • doniree Says:
    December 5th, 2010 at 9:07 am

    Ahh what an awesome but subtle thing you pointed out – about older folks telling you to "do it while you're young." What IF I keep this sense of adventure through my 30's and into my 40's and beyond? No matter what the future holds, we DO have the ability to continually make these kinds of choices.

  • Sonia Says:
    December 5th, 2010 at 2:46 pm

    Great post! Loved it!

  • Marianne_A Says:
    December 5th, 2010 at 3:39 pm

    Wow, another great 'quarter-life' post – thanks! I like what you pointed out about the irrelevance of those statistics about milestones. I don't see myself attaining those things soon, but it's okay. And for those of us who are still figuring out what we want, so what if it's taking us longer? Sometimes it's just necessary. Sometimes it's the only thing to do and you're right – it's not a bad thing. We should own it!

  • Lindsey Says:
    December 5th, 2010 at 6:16 pm

    … which is why I'm so stoked to be able to take charge and make these decisions now! Here's to an entire life of awesome sauce!

  • Lindsey Says:
    December 5th, 2010 at 6:16 pm

    Thanks Sonia :)

  • Lindsey Says:
    December 5th, 2010 at 6:18 pm

    We have the opportunity to own it, so why not? Take your time, be introspective, quarterlife is mad transition but if you can take the time now you can alter the course of the whole rest of your life to be exactly how you want it to be. It's WORTH the effort, for sure!

  • Casey Says:
    December 5th, 2010 at 7:12 pm

    Hell to the yes girlfriend! Great post! Needed that reminder to shake the woe-is-me attitude. This is a GREAT thing for us to go though because it DOES let us actually realize, hmm, I'm not sure where i'm going now, but i'm glad I woke up and realized it sooner than later so I can CHOOSE where I want this life of mine to go. Thanks for the reminder :-)

  • Alisha Says:
    December 5th, 2010 at 8:04 pm

    I love this. Yes, it's about standing up for our happiness! Why is that so wrong?!

  • Kristina Wegscheider Says:
    December 6th, 2010 at 10:33 am

    Wonderful post Lindsey! I run a travel website called "Do It While You're Young" and our whole motto to encourage young women to get out there and experience life before settling in to society's norms. When I turned 25 a few years back, I totally celebrated all that I had accomplished (like stepping foot on all seven continents) instead of dwelling on not being a homeowner/married/mother.

  • Lindsey Says:
    December 7th, 2010 at 8:03 am

    All seven continents?! Awesome! That is totally on my life list too! And this is the great part about being in this Generation full of opportunity and choice – finding freedom to decide what really matters to YOU as an individual. Cool site too, I'll be checking that out for sure!

  • Lindsey Says:
    December 7th, 2010 at 8:03 am

    Like you said in your QLC post, anyone who hates on it is just JEALOUS!

  • Lindsey Says:
    December 7th, 2010 at 8:04 am

    Woo hoo! Realizations are hard work, but when you rock it now you can't have any regrets later on. Stay positive, girl! This life is yours for the taking :)

  • Marina Says:
    December 9th, 2010 at 12:36 pm

    I love your article. I am going through the exact same thing and am making videos about it. Check them out on my site http://www.20somethingjourney.com or youtube.com/user/20somethingjourney I would love your input, maybe you can even suggest something that I should cover! Marina

  • nikki_klecha Says:
    January 2nd, 2011 at 10:19 pm

    Hells yeah!!! LOVE -as per usual… muah!

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