Quarterlife Qualms

Written By: Brittany Holsonback

A large, black outline of a flower covers the area on her lower neck as its stem swirls delicately from the petals down her upper back. She ties her brown hair, which usually falls just below her shoulders, back into a ponytail so that she can see the 3 X 2 inch tattoo in her reflection in the mirror. After admiring it for a long time, she lets her hair back down, making sure the tattoo is fully covered, and heads into the next room where her parents are watching TV. Sarah Barton, a senior at Auburn University, is 22 years old and desperately seeking independence from the warm, loving parents who raised her. She is experiencing a quarterlife crisis. And she is not alone.

This term, which was coined in 2001 by Abby Wilner and Alexandra Robbins, co-authors of Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties, has become a phenomenon unique to the current generation of twentysomethings. With more than 30 groups devoted to this topic on Facebook alone and almost 10,000 members of quarterlifecrisis.com, it has become a topic that cannot be ignored. Among the questions being raised are (1) why is this period of self-discovery, anxiety, and introspection unique to twentysomethings today, and (2) what is different about the issues twentysomethings face now as opposed to those our parents faced in the 60s and 70s?

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Quarterlifers Need Friends Like Alan Shore & Denny Crane

I enjoy watching ABC’s “Boston Legal.” Its main characters are Alan Shore and Denny Crane, portrayed by James Spader and William Shatner, respectively. Shore, an associate at Crane, Poole and Schmidt, is the firm’s civil rights specialist and best litigator. Politically, he would be identified as a Democrat. Crane is a self-absorbed, gun-toting Republican who has convinced himself, and others, that he suffers from madcow. Denny is a named partner who is listed first on the office door and letterhead. These two are the equivalent of water and oil because of their character differences.

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Quarter-life Crisis?

Guest Written by:  Lindsay Love

So I just turned 27, at least a quarter of my life is now behind me. The sun has set on my childhood, my formative years, and sadly, my opportunity to use youthful naivety as an excuse for my follies and shortcomings. Am I experiencing an existential dilemma? Am I staring wide-eyed at a crossroads in my life’s journey? Well… no, I don’t think so, but I will let you know for sure as soon as I find some time to think about it. Right now, I am too busy finishing my Bachelor’s degree, working full-time, and most importantly, raising a 5-year-old little girl.

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Zen Beer-ism

Sometimes inspiration comes when you least expect it. For example, last weekend I was at an Irish pub in upstate New York. The waitress had just brought an order of hot wings and another tall, frothy, cold beer. It was a dark amber ale with a good head and great body. Clear. Smooth. Rich. It was hypnotic, and I fell into its trance. The tiny bubbles floated to the top, each one like a little planet racing into outer space. Before long I was floating in the beer. I was swimming around the planets, giddy like a kid on Christmas morning. Okay, maybe I was a little drunk. But inspiration nonetheless struck, and my great realization came: beer is a metaphor for life.

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Back to School

Bruce Springsteen released the album “Born to Run” in 1975, making him twenty-six years old at the time. I can’t help but wonder if the title track was about a quarter life crisis-induced contemplation of grad school. Ok, The Boss probably didn’t think much about doing his masters while he was burning his back in the Badlands, his version of being born to run involving a rusted Chevrolet, a dirty, white t-shirt, and the girl next door. But we can all relate to having an overwhelming desire to run, to escape from a situation that we find unsettling, awkward, or unsatisfying. In my case, the great escape was to the safe haven of grad school, and I’m not the only one.

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Moving to Paradise

Many people have the dream of relocating to a tropical island at one time or another. Sipping Margaritas on breathtaking shores in the hot summer sun; hiking through jungles to remote waterfalls; enjoying the raw power and beauty of the ocean; it’s the vision of paradise. So, why don’t most people follow through with the dream? It’s not easy, that’s why. Assuming you get past the inherent fear of leaving your familiar, comfortable life behind and moving to a foreign world, there are still the financial issues, family and friends, relationships, and career concerns, especially for the people of our generation. This is the time we’re working our hardest to secure a strong career and forge long-term relationships. And to top it off, we usually don’t have a large supply of cash readily available. Still, we dream.

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Little, White Boxes

Little, white boxes rule my life. It’s an unfortunate side effect of living in the Internet age. You know the boxes: the ones that you have to fill out with a catchy title on a job site so that someone will read your resume; the ones that want you to fill in your idea of a perfect match so that the database can send you suitable significant others; the ones on your website where you are supposed to put an article that has pertinent information, is intelligent, and has a point…

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The Game Craze Phaze

So, your grandmother has a Wii, your aunt and uncle have challenged you to a rock off in “Guitar Hero,” and your friend Katie asked you to come over and play “Rock Band” with her and her roommates. No, this isn’t some alternate bizarro world; it’s the real thing; and it’s a little strange for someone, like me, who has been a gamer all his life. But is this new gaming craze merely a trend? Or will you start seeing Grandma at the EB pawning off her hair curlers and rotisserie ovens for the latest “Halo”?

In 2007, the computer and video game industry took in a record $9.5 billion in U.S. sales, while the music industry has been steadily declining and movie sales have remained level. The “casual” gamer has been identified and targeted. Games offering a new, simpler “pick up and play” approach have spared no one. Soccer moms, grandparents, and girls of all ages are now setting aside extra cash to support their gaming addiction, an addiction that I know all too well. [Read more]

Into The Wild: A Quarterlife Crisis

I expected I would like this movie. A middle class twentysomething college graduate, dissatisfied with life, abandons his possessions, and hitchhikes his way to Alaska to live in the wilderness. And it’s a true story. Sign me up.

The main character is Christopher McCandless, played by Emile Hirsch. After a brief preamble, he embarks on his journey with the only goal being - reach Alaska. As an audience, we are quickly made aware that he will eventually make it there, as the film often “flashes forward” to a parallel narrative of his experiences living in the Alaskan wilderness. [Read more]

How Harry Potter and Business School Saved My Life

You start to get twitchy, there is a worry that you don’t know where your next fix is coming from, and you plan your day around how to alleviate the stress of your never-ceasing thoughts. You are a Harry Potter Addict.

There is a new study being submitted to the Journal of General Psychology that indicates that Harry Potter is addictive. The study, by Dr. Jeffery Rudski, found characteristics of addiction in at least 10 percent of the 4000 HP buffs he surveyed online. He used smoking scales to judge addictiveness of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” before the book came out, after a person had read it, and six months afterward. [Read more]

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