The Quarter Life Crisis

Yes folks, my time is fast arriving. I am entering the quarter life crisis. The time when you realize that your hopes and aspirations whilst growing up have not quite worked out as you planned. Your “to do” list is never quite “done” when you hit 25.

Last week I read an article in the YOU magazine in which a handful of young women were interviewed about their successful lives and how by the mid-twenties it all seems to come together. Miss X was a fashion assistant for some leading designer, Miss Y was a lawyer in Dubai and Miss Z was presenting a TV show! These young and glamorous ladies seem to have life sussed at the wise age of 25 – great jobs and a great future.

The article had a point. 25 means you are now slowly rolling down the twenty something hill. If you are single, the search for the one becomes a lot more serious than laughing at a few flunk dates. What the heck, if you’re Asian then Mum and Dad start panicking that you are doomed to a life of spinsterhood if you are not settled by 25. If you are not in your dream job you start to devise a strategy about how to get it. If you haven’t completed your trip around the world you start to plan it now. If you are not on the property ladder you start to decide how you are going to climb it. Suddenly at 25, as you get closer to hitting the chunky 30, everything seems to become real.

So if they say that 40 is the new 30 - does that make 25 the new 15?

At 15 I started to keep a diary – my legacy that I hope is discovered by my great granddaughter when rummaging through the family garage 100 years down the line. At 15 I was an inspiring musician and a budding journalist. I now have my foot in the door of the international development sector. I didn’t even know with the international development was back then. At fifteen you can get away with being asked “What do you want to be when you grow up?” and reply (with conviction) “a police officer, a lawyer, a doctor, a singer, an astronaut!”

Today when I am asked “what do you do?” I start an exhausting recital of my life history over the past five years. My career cannot be summed up in one word. For those bankers, lawyers, accountants, doctors and dentists out there – you guys have it easy. That said, my little career speech does initiate what used to be great conversation. These days it’s a little repetitive.

But as I count down the days to my quarter life crisis big day, I am beginning to try and dig up when I left behind when I went to university where I decided to just go with the flow. In the same way that our parents are supposed to rediscover their youth when we fly the nest, are we meant to rediscover our childhood aspirations when we hit 25? Is their still time for me to thrown in a number one chart topping hit? Does true success really have a sell by date?

If we look at it from a gender perspective then maybe it does. Between 21 to 41 we find most people make a name for themselves. And whilst men can concentrate entirely on that career goal, women also have to keep an eye on the clock. The body clock. Trying to plan motherhood is another chunk of life that needs to be slotted into a woman’s post -25 life.

I like to think I am on the right track but I doubt I’ll reach my destination within the next three weeks. Maybe if I ask nicely, Ill get an extension to catch up on my aging “to do” list. Another decade should do it….