Quarter-life crisis now in Year 2

I'm not gonna lie. I cried my eyes out on my 26th birthday.

Here I was, another year older, and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing in life or what I was supposed to be doing.

Oh, the fun of a quarter-life crisis.

I'm now into Year 2 of my crisis, with no end in sight. I thought turning 25 was traumatic. Turning 26 was much, much worse.

I'm another year closer to 30, and everywhere I look other 20-somethings are getting married or having babies. Granted, I don't want to be married right now or have babies.

But I feel like I'm supposed to be getting married and having babies because that's what you do in your mid-20s.

Instead, I have a long list of failed relationships and am going to end up alone with my crabby cat.

My quarter-life crisis prompts amusement from my Generation X and baby boomer co-workers. "Oh, that Teri. Being dramatic as always," they say to themselves. They all give me amused smiles and chuckles as I bemoan life as a 20-something.

I can't wait until they get to their midlife crisis.

The quarter-life crisis is prominent among Generation Yers, who grew up having every second of their day planned with some sort of activity. Life was structure. Structure was life.

No one ever talked to us about what happens after you graduate from college, other than you get a job and get married.

Now here we are, out of college, having no idea if this is the job we're supposed to be at or what we're supposed to do with our blank day planners for the next 60 years.

The world is wide open with anything we want to do, but we are completely frozen because we have no idea what to do. We're overwhelmed by the possibilities and afraid of making the wrong choice.

Essentially, we're at the end of the kid roadmap, and no one gave us the new grown-up edition.

But you won't easily find a bewildered Gen Yer lost in a quarter-life crisis. Not when the older generations would consider us a bunch of punks who need to shape up and get over it. And because it isn't good for our image to look lost.

It was a difficult task finding people for my story who would publicly admit that they have a quarter-life crisis. I admire them for speaking up and hope other 20-somethings can see they aren't alone.

This is the first story in a series I plan to do over the next year regarding generational differences. The goal is to help each generation better understand each other.

So if you have any ideas, let me know. My cat and I are ready to hear them.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Teri Finneman at (701) 241-5560 or tfinneman@forumcomm.com Quarter-life crisis now in Year 2 Teri Finneman 20071028