Quarter-life crisis: Life @ 25
This happens in everyone's life.It's a state in which
the mind seems liberated yet in a certain mode of conflict. The macho
idealism confronts the starring realities of existence in such an
impromptu way that it throws you either apart or makes you all the more
better. In its deepest sense, the age of 25 or about there, is a moment
where youthful idealism battles with pragmatic realism in such a direct
manner in professional and personal lives. Quarterlifecrisis truly
arrives!
Ideology:
The
post-adolescent period of individuals are filled with opinions. Opinions
on everything; from movies to politics to sports to gossip. These
opinions generally stem from a perspective that has been either fed by
parents through childhood or inherited from interactions with college
friends. More often than not, these interactions are not only sweeping,
they are also short sighted at times. How many times have you regretted a
fight on ideological grounds that you might find laughable ten years
down the line? At 25 or so, one is confronted with an open world with a
plethora of ideologies and thinking mindsets. At this stage, most of
these new exposures are in conflict with what you had been preached. The
mind is in a conundrum, whether to follow what has been thought or
embrace what it is being exposed to? At this juncture, from a closeted
world, the young minds start to straddle in an arena with multiple
viewpoints on most issues. All of these viewpoints generally start from a
single source; the workplace.
Job Number One, Two:
The
stage of first and second employment is the most definitive leap for a
college graduate into the outside world. Experiences can vary from being
brilliant to being downright nasty. Irrespective of the experience, it
surely does throw you in the cold water. The "sir's" become "managers",
the chatters a couple of months ago in college now become
"unprofessional" and work becomes almost god. At 25, one would be at the
peak of that transition period. Clueless as when to be straight, when
to be diplomatic and when to act diplomatic, the individual is stuck
between two worlds. One dreamy world which thought the world was as
sweet as honey and the other realistic world that says "forget the
honey; it's all about the money". In between the major professional
transitional crisis comes the personal one.
Relationships:
Ah,
once more. All this while these relationships were a solitary worry for
most college graduates. Now it gets to another level post education
considering the stress that work produces. It's that time when you see
your first crush getting married with a colgate like smile, your second
crush naming her son after you; in between all this you seem the loner
who is trying to understand if you can ever flash a colgate smile! Most
young adults get into this personal space of loneliness (assuming they
are single) which gets them further into a state of "what the hell am I
doing with my life?" mode. In an effort to fulfill the space of
emptiness, people start to aspire to do things in order to take them
forward in their lives.
Aspirations:
Aspirations
are defined by desire to excel in something that one loves. This state
of aspiration would have been intrinsic all these years but at the
quarter life stage, it would inevitably pop up at some level. Should I
start a company? Should I become a writer? Should I study something
else? These questions pop up at this interval leaving the individuals at
a state of flux on what to do going forward. It leaves the individuals
with the state of dilemma within their mindsets especially after
wondering if these aspirations are in line with what the families expect
of themselves. At this stage of one's life, neither would the
individual have a track record to prove one's excellence nor would one
be in a position to show how the aspiration can be a massive success
some day. The mind would seem to be in a state of crisis on how to
proceed forward.
At the root of all these questions in
front of the 25 year old, lies a fundamental question. What might be
the way out? In all of these above cases, there seems to be a common
thread of thought that can be applied to the entire so called crisis
above. It is to believe in your own ability and keep marching forward
with a positive attitude. It sounds clich and simplistic, sometimes
simplicity is the epitome of the greatest philosophical truths. An
innate belief in oneself would reinforce the ideologies learned through
childhood by incorporating the positive values from other ideologies and
cultures. An innate belief with a positive attitude would make the
first job a learning platform despite the hammerings from the superiors
that one gets through the process. A positive attitude would help handle
relationships with a more positive frame of mind understanding that
someday the right one would always be there waiting for you, it's a
question of time. Most importantly, a strong belief in one's ability
would help to overcome all of the above barriers to make aspirations, a
path breaking reality.
Life @25 can be gripped by a
quarter life crisis; Life beyond 25 is about how one conquers the
quarter life crisis. Live, Hope, Believe and conquer!
