Quarterlife crisis...

My fellow girl-in-a-geeky-company Sara coined an interesting phrase recently. A quarterlife crisis. This came to light after several coffee room based discussions regarding the fact that a lot of our friends (and indeed ourselves) who fall into the "mid twenties" catagory seem to be undergoing some questioning about the direction our lives are taking.

In my case, it's the fact that I've spent 4 years at uni training for one career, and now I'm here, I'm not sure it's what I want to do long term. I enjoy it most of the time, but I don't want this to be what I spend the next 40 years doing. The main problem lies in the fact that I'm still not sure what it is I want to do, and I can't face another 3 years of studying to retrain... And I'd quite like to get some travelling in there somewhere before being tied down with a morgage... For a number of my friends it's manifested in some kind of living abroad period - a year, two years... some kind of adventure while looking for that direction. I know other people who've started questioning the relationships they're in or not in. Is this what I want? For the rest of my life?

I guess the reason this kind of questioning often manifests itself around this time is that if you go to Uni, your direction is mapped out for you for the 3 or 4 years you spend there. Upon graduating, you are thrown into some kind of job. New things have novelty - there are things to learn, people to meet, and the time flows by. 18 months or so down the line however, there is often a crash back down to earth. Is this it? Is this my life now? All those dreams you have when you're younger are easily lost under the practicalities of paying the rent and keeping your job in a recession. Jobs aren't always what you expected them to be. Frustrations arise about the difficulties of changing things in large companies, or not having the necessary support in small companies. But is the grass really greener elsewhere or do you just need to deal with it? And I guess that applies to relationships too - all relationships will go through good and bad patches, and the honeymoon period will undoubtedly end, but is it worth sticking with or is it time to call it quits?

All these questions come from uncertainty and having to make life changing decisions essentially on our own. As children and teenagers, parents often have a big say on the decisions we make. At Uni, the course we take dictates our route, reducing the choices. And the decisions we make are not so significant - whether I'd taken one module or another was a big decision at the time, but regardless I'd still have graduated with a degree. Now the magnitude of job and career choices that face me, and the consequences of my actions dwarf those decisions. But one of my reflections on last year was that I should start taking more risks in life. I tend to the safe and known route, meaning that I may miss out on something really great...

Enough waffling from me. The whole thing has got me kind of inspired with writing again and I've started working on a script based around the whole idea. It's still at the initial trying-to-get-my-head-round-it stage (lots of notes, lists, diagrams) and we'll see whether it goes anywhere... But it's nice to be writing again!

(And before someone points it out, I know there was some kind of web series called quarterlife a few years ago)...