The Sun Also Rises, or, Addressing the Quarter Life Crisis through Retrospective and Fart Comics
We've all been there; You go through school, graduate, get out into the real world, and suddenly the rails, which guided you through life, end in a vast prairie. While lush with prospects, we've been so used to riding the rails towards adulthood that we don't know how to operate when we get there. Reality hits us with questions we think we don't know the answers to: What the hell do I do now? How do I survive? I have to enter this vast wilderness, but how do I feed myself? Where am I going?
We have a vague idea about the direction of the nearest civilization, yet all we see are grasslands stretching to the horizon. While I have often found myself wishing we had been warned about this Quarter-life crisis, I don't think any preparation would help. It's like the difference between seeing one of those survival shows vs being stuck to survive the same situation yourself.
I struggled through this myself, and have seen many friends do the same. Still others are going through it as we speak. It's been on my mind a bit, but this comic: [The Fart Party - Bad Blood] brought up a really good point about the struggle we make between our expectations and reality. I think I struggled through the expectations of my parents, then my own. My parents expected me to graduate and get a programming job, maybe move to the West Coast, where there are more tech jobs, and make good money, a family, etc. Maybe I expected that a bit. Later, I decided to revise my goals, and go with web design, which I've been doing since the early days of the internet; Maybe on the West Coast, maybe not. Now it's 10 years later, and I'm still at HKT. I make enough to get by, but not enough to get by with much luxury or safty net.
That's my story, and I've come to grips with where I am, and what I'm doing. Mostly. But others around me are still struggling, or just starting out. It's frustrating to watch them go through the path I've already weathered. Although it does make you wonder about the difference in the success of some people vs others. I know lizzytish had an internship and landed a job pretty close to getting out of college. Sam, on the other hand, struggled for quite a while before making it. We had several conversations on this very subject. I didn't push very hard to get through that time, and the comforts of a job, however low-paying, kept me from breaking that barrier.
I guess I'm wondering what impact this quarter-life crisis has on my various friends, and if it's necessarily about the same things? For some, it's a job, or the relevance of the job compared to where we saw ourselves as we grew up. For others, perhaps a relationship, whether you have one, or where it might be going. Some may even be concerned about achieving other experiences, such as being single as a 20-something, traveling, and living out life adventures, perhaps giving back and living up to society's classic view of the adventurous spirit of that age-group.
Whatever it is, I'm curious how all of you view your quarter-life crisis, if you've had one, or your thoughts on the subject. Before reading Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises," I had seen almost no acknowledgment on the subject, and that's a real shame. So tell me what you think!
We have a vague idea about the direction of the nearest civilization, yet all we see are grasslands stretching to the horizon. While I have often found myself wishing we had been warned about this Quarter-life crisis, I don't think any preparation would help. It's like the difference between seeing one of those survival shows vs being stuck to survive the same situation yourself.
I struggled through this myself, and have seen many friends do the same. Still others are going through it as we speak. It's been on my mind a bit, but this comic: [The Fart Party - Bad Blood] brought up a really good point about the struggle we make between our expectations and reality. I think I struggled through the expectations of my parents, then my own. My parents expected me to graduate and get a programming job, maybe move to the West Coast, where there are more tech jobs, and make good money, a family, etc. Maybe I expected that a bit. Later, I decided to revise my goals, and go with web design, which I've been doing since the early days of the internet; Maybe on the West Coast, maybe not. Now it's 10 years later, and I'm still at HKT. I make enough to get by, but not enough to get by with much luxury or safty net.
That's my story, and I've come to grips with where I am, and what I'm doing. Mostly. But others around me are still struggling, or just starting out. It's frustrating to watch them go through the path I've already weathered. Although it does make you wonder about the difference in the success of some people vs others. I know lizzytish had an internship and landed a job pretty close to getting out of college. Sam, on the other hand, struggled for quite a while before making it. We had several conversations on this very subject. I didn't push very hard to get through that time, and the comforts of a job, however low-paying, kept me from breaking that barrier.
I guess I'm wondering what impact this quarter-life crisis has on my various friends, and if it's necessarily about the same things? For some, it's a job, or the relevance of the job compared to where we saw ourselves as we grew up. For others, perhaps a relationship, whether you have one, or where it might be going. Some may even be concerned about achieving other experiences, such as being single as a 20-something, traveling, and living out life adventures, perhaps giving back and living up to society's classic view of the adventurous spirit of that age-group.
Whatever it is, I'm curious how all of you view your quarter-life crisis, if you've had one, or your thoughts on the subject. Before reading Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises," I had seen almost no acknowledgment on the subject, and that's a real shame. So tell me what you think!