Killin It In Your Quarter Life Crisis

So let’s pretend we’re sitting together at a coffee shop, maybe we both have a latte if you’re into that kind of thing. We just got done people watching and now I have a confession.
I’m confessing to you because I assume I’m not the only one who along the way in life has felt The Three D’s: Directionless, defeated, and a lil’ bit dead.

Well in a complete upheaval of my general disposition, over the last few weeks I’ve felt these things pretty furiously.

It can be hard to explain to people that although you’re fine- you don’t feel fully yourself. Typically nothing tragic has happened, you aren’t unwell or in trouble. There’s just a hazy gloom over your head that taints everything you experience and how you perceive your life.

A ridiculous amount of the things I’ve always hoped for I now have, which is why I know this is a first world problem. (I mean genuinely, the last year has been stellar. Engagement, marriage, bought a house, got a puppy…) Yet I’ve been skeptical, stand offish, and generally disinterested in everyday life without even realizing it.

In one of my fave old school Jon Mayer songs, Why Georgia, he talks about a quarter life crisis. I went back and looked up the description, since in high school I couldn’t have cared less what he was talking about.

Then I died because every explanation on every website was literally talking about me.

According to Wikipedia…
The quarterlife crisis is a period of life usually ranging from the late teens to the early thirties, in which a person begins to feel doubtful about their own lives, brought on by the stress of becoming an adult. The term was coined by analogy with mid-life crisis.

Sometimes you’ve got to just sit down and think about what you’re thinking about, and the way those thoughts are shaping and changing your every day perspective.

For me, the thought of 401K’s, life insurance policies, education costs for our nonexistent children, and sitting at a desk in an nondescript rolly chair for 40 more years… All these things make me want to lay on the ground and kick my legs in the air like a two year old.

There’s a negative voice in my mind that tells me, “Well that’s the end of the good stuff for you! Get ready for hard stuff and endless duty. Forget your dreams, conform, etc!”
But maybe a quarter life crisis, a mid life crisis, or wherever you’re at – is just about learning how to fight against that voice.

I’m starting to fight back, and it feels pretty awesome so far.

For me so far this is looking like reading more books, taking some online courses, expanding my skill set, getting back to regular exercise and actively studying the Bible. I’m starting to dream about starting my own business, maybe even something involving my dreams and hobbies I’ve neglected over the last few years.
The harsh reality is I’ve been sabotaging myself by allowing daily life to make me lazy and complacent. Society and “The Man” are not forcing me to become like everyone else around me, to fall into a pattern I have no desire to reflect. I’m letting it happen to myself.

That’s what happens when we stop trying, when we stop believing that all things are possible.
So 27 for me is not the beginning of the end… it’s the beginning of whatever I’m willing to work hard enough to reach.

Time to kill it.