By Sambridhi Shrestha
A sudden wave pushing you down when you are standing strong, that’s what quarter life crisis feels like. A wave that holds insecurities, anxiety, and most importantly confusion giving you a sinking feeling. Not many recognize it but it happens to all. Some are lost and some are just well sorted.
The term mid-life crisis is broadly known and recognized by most but quarter-life crisis is still not popularized. Quarter life crisis is a period of uncertainty and questioning that typically occurs when people feel trapped, uninspired and disillusioned during their mid-20’s to early ’30s.
The sudden occurrence of adulating and the gravity of responsibility pulls a person down while stirring up all the thoughts and perspective towards what the future holds. Questions constantly arising, giving second thoughts about everyone, ideas, and dreams..
It would not be wrong to say that it’s a phase when you want to detach yourself from the current situation and try to discover what you want and where you want to head to but most importantly you discover yourself. You are suddenly not a kid anymore and have a graduate degree in your hand, you have the urge of acting and thinking like an adult. You start searching for new jobs, start analyzing loan interest for studies or business and many other things that you thought you were not ready for. This entire process is hard to sink in at the beginning but then you start identifying what you really want and which road you want to take. You see the change that it brings to life and that change becomes very scary but then the best option is to greet it and move forward rather than clinging to the past and waste time.
You talk to your friends about it and you realize that it’s not just you who is suffering from this, but all the people of your age are going through the same phase in life. You are no more the kid in the family, you are no more the child that makes mistakes and is forgiven or someone that can just chill out and enjoy life without having a proper source of income. So many ideas hit you, whether to continue studies or start working or start your own business or even getting married. The intensity of this phase is really high, it changes a person completely, and it gives you different dimensions of understanding all the things, be it family, friends, career or even the values that we once believed in.
Understanding the situation and the collision of thoughts in our mind is a miraculous thing. There are very few who can pull this phase off without changing themselves or having the need to change. Others are just trying their best every day to figure this thing and some are too lazy to realize the phase that they are in but they will face it eventually.
One day you are just frustrated about this whole idea of quarter-life crisis and the other day you figure it out somehow. You start seeing things in high definition; the clarity leads you to a path, the child inside you is still scared but acceptance guides that child that’s when you realize that you are almost there, you are this close to becoming a person called “adult”.
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