'So no one told you life was gonna be this way. Your jobs a joke, you're broke, your love life's D.O.A.' Sound familiar? This little gem doesn't just spark the memory of Ross and Rachel but in recent months has become more and more relevant. A comparison I was able to make while indulging in far too much day-time TV, instead of trying to deal with what was going on around me. Fact is folks, if you're in final year or recently graduated you're absolutely bricking it. Being a grownup is now a tangible reality and it isn't nice.
Introducing 'The Quarter Life Crises', we're all going through one, so hears a few hints and tips on how to not self-combust.
The day after graduation I sat in my childhood room, on my Barbie sheets, and full on bawled. This is okay. I promise. The ugly crying is stage one, recognition, also known as 'Holy shit, is this my life?'. It is. Get living. We all began this college adventure with the very best intentions of completing our three or four years and then settling into grownup-hood. The rules have changed. I don't want to be a grownup anymore, I don't want to work in the area I studied for three years, I don't want to do my masters. The logical response to this rant is usually, 'Oh and what is it that you do want?' which leads to further daytime television distraction and if pushed the answer 'Fuck knows'.
I don't want to be a grownup, but being Peter Pan isn't actually a valid option. Look around you, everyone, guys, girls, parents, are all watching you slide into the quarter life crises fold. My best, very best advice is to just embrace it. Embrace not knowing, embrace being scared and see what happens. School and college have been educating us not only in choice subjects but in life. We've all had the teacher who claimed our rampant giggling would get us nowhere in life. And now we're about to figure it out for real.
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It's time, little lost one, to take your head out of sand, yes its scary, but it has to be done. Ignore the incessant whispers around the library '2:1, 2:1, 2:1', acknowledge that a masters is an option but not compulsory one, chillax. This time is yours to make mistakes, to carve experiences and to figure out what you want. Don't force it and don't let others force it upon you. You are the one who has to live this life, not your mum, dad, brother, best friend, lecturer, significant other, you're the one who is responsible for making life choices that are going to make you happy.
Six months ago I was curled up in the library, jacked up on caffeine and my screensaver was a shakily drawn '2:1'. I didn't expect to defer a masters, I didn't expect a three month American adventure, I didn't plan expect to begin a blog. And you know what; the unexpected has brought me the greatest happiness.
Freak out about it, everyone else is.
