Quarter-life Crisis, Wikipedia Style

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Pretty much ever since I graduated from college, I have been experiencing what I like to call my quarter-life crisis. It comes and goes, ebbs and flows, all of that stuff. Right now, I'm feeling pretty good. I start class (again!) in a couple of weeks, going to get my MPH, all of that, thus delaying real adulthood yet again for another year, such that I won't be employed until 27, and if, as I feel like I will, I'll do a year of fellowship after residency, I won't actually be making a full fam med salary until 31...so I'm looking at 6 more years until I'm a non-resident physician. Nice.

To the lay person, this may seem like a lot, but to those in the field, it's more like...oooh, let me delay this shit as long as possible. Responsible for life and death situations? Why did I want to do this again?

Anyway, quarter-life crisis. Heh, if I'm still single at 27, this is going to be raging.

I found it amusing that wikipedia had a whole page on the crisis. Let's see how many characteristics of the crisis I fall into. I'm keeping the hyperlinks and the lovely [citation needed] designation to the entire list, because that adds to the hilarity. The ones that apply to me are in bold:

Characteristics of quarter-life crisis may include:[ citation needed]

• realizing that the pursuits of one's peers are useless
• confronting their own mortality
• watching time slowly take its toll on their parents, only to realize they are next
• insecurity regarding the fact that their actions are meaningless
• insecurity concerning ability to love themselves, let alone another person
• insecurity regarding present accomplishments (acutally...yeah)
• re-evaluation of close interpersonal relationships
• lack of friendships or romantic relationships, sexual frustration, and involuntary celibacy
• disappointment with one's job
• nostalgia for university, college, high school or elementary school life
• tendency to hold stronger opinions
• boredom with social interactions
• loss of closeness to high school and college friends
• financially-rooted stress (overwhelming college loans, unanticipatedly high cost of living, etc.)
• loneliness, depression and suicidal tendencies
• desire to have children
• a sense that everyone is, somehow, doing better than you
• frustration with social skills

Okay, so not everyone everyone, but sometimes it feels like my classmates have things more together than I do. Sometimes. And I actually used to feel as if my actions were meaningless. I feel that less now, as residency stares me in the face and it's like, oooh, this shit better not have been meaningless...I hope I remember something.

My crisis right now is mainly that I'd always been a girly-girl in terms of love and marriage, as well as a type A personality who wants to have as much of her life planned as possible. That I cannot plan my personal life because I have no idea when and with whom my relationship will be with literally drives me insane on the regular. I just mapped out all of my courses for my public health year. What do you mean I can't do that for the rest of my life?

Ask me where I'll be in 10 years? No clue. To hell if I know where I'll be in 5 years...alive, hopefully. That's as much as I know.

So I'll continue crisising it and we'll see where this all ends up!