SEARCHING & THE QUARTER LIFE PHENOMENA
by Cherrychixx

I'm just curious... Have you ever had one of those quarter-life crisis? That big mid-twenties "thing" every gen-xer seems to be so warily anxious about? I have John Mayer's "Why Georgia?" playing on the Winamp right now and I can't help thinking how it poignantly sums up this... This lack of... Of meaning? Or direction? That the "quarter life crisis theory" tries to phenomenize.

If you think about it we spend approximately 70% (if you're 25 below) of our lives preparing, ironically, for LIFE. Our parents send us to school to learn and to equip ourselves against the "real world". Then the other remaining percentage of our lives are spent inside "veal fattening pens" we call offices. Now, what some of us may not realize is that while we are couped inside our buildings, LIFE is happening outside!!! If the "real world" means, us, entering from one "pen" to another then how "real" can the world be? Before we can ever have the chance to wander outside our world we find ourselves transformed into old, washed up yuppies. Too late, we realize, life has passed us by.

So why do we stay? Is it because we've become so used to being told what to do that we have become... Verdict less. We mistake other's opinion for our own, submitting and conforming ourselves to the status quo. I'm not saying that neutrality and balance is bad. But the problem with our society, I THINK, is that control and conformity are often mistaken for diplomacy and discipline.

Or is it because we have become so materialistic that we fear to get ourselves out of this rut?

Maybe its useless to think about all of this. Maybe the Quarter Life Crisis is a figment of our imagination or worse an EXCUSE.

Anyways below is something I found from an online journal... I found it so profound....

S is for searching

Sometimes you just get tired. Tired of your life, tired of your job, and the place where you fit.

Tired of the size and shape of your piece.

Life is a puzzle. Am I the little sparkly jewel at the top of the crown, am I the peak of the mountain, am I the door to the house? Or am I just a piece of sky, the difference between me and my neighbors dubious and difficult to determine. I guess it's a soft and subtle way of saying I'm feeling a little lost in my surroundings. A little confined and forced in.