Quarter Life Crisis

I believe our generation's biggest pitfall is that we were raised to the concept that each and every one of us is special and is destined for greatness, we were set up for disappointment. As our careers settled we realized that all of that isn't true, all of our dreams and aspirations of greatness is far from real, simply there isn't enough greatness to go around, other than a fancy title that no one gets -these days everybody is called an analyst or a manager- our jobs are far from fulfilling, our impact on the world is equal if not less to the impact our parents even grandparents had, soon enough will slip into oblivion. Its all about expectation management and our expectations were greatly skewed growing up.

Not so long ago I was reading an article about our generations quarter life crisis, as it turns out we are the first generation that suffers from it.

This phenomenon, known as the “Quarterlife Crisis,” is as ubiquitous as it is intangible. Unrelenting indecision, isolation, confusion and anxiety about working, relationships and direction is reported by people in their mid-twenties to early thirties who are usually urban, middle class and well-educated; those who should be able to capitalize on their youth, unparalleled freedom and free-for-all individuation. They can’t make any decisions, because they don’t know what they want, and they don’t know what they want because they don’t know who they are, and they don’t know who they are because they’re allowed to be anyone they want.

Our parents didn't go through it, they didn't have to too busy making ends meet, not time was left for all these false feelings of greatness or out of the world expectations, with expectations that soar above our parents' and our ability to fulfill them its no wonder that all of us feel betrayed by the world, even the brightest over achiever is his own biggest underachiever. They used to say Man's reach exceed his grasp but its never been so true. the quarter life crisis isn't about where a person is, its more about where he'll be and how far he is from the chart he plotted for himself, first million at 30 slowly turns to new car by 30 as each of us realize how far our expectations are from reality. Going off the set course and the associated feelings of dispare slowly materialize into half baked action plans, usually including enrolling for a post graduate degree that may or may not help. Have you noticed how many people you know enroll into post-grad only to drop few semesters later, obviously this quarter life crisis is working perfectly for academic institutes. "you don't like your life as it is, why don't you enroll for masters, you'll have such an amazing life, you'll be all you can be", This exceeds false advertisement, bordering fraud its sets up students' expectations so high they can't but fail.