Quarter Life Crisis

Note to Chennai Makkal: This post refers to a totally different crisis and has nothing to do with Alcohol Abuse.

So you are in your 20s. You have a fancy BE degree from an engineering college in Chennai. Working in an IT firm in Chennai or Bangalore. Things are looking good in your company. Not a lot of work mostly. Weekends are completely free. Well, some weekends you’ll have to go. Damn production issues. Other than that seeing movies FDFS, hanging out with friends on the beach and late night texts with that girl you like. You are happy that you are enjoying your life.

Oh wait. You are not that guy? Ok, you are in the USA. And you are studying there. Enjoying your newfound freedom. Going to clubs and dancing with girls. Drinking liquor which you thought was taboo back in India. Wearing $10 T shirts bought from Aeropostale and Old Navy during Black Friday. Commenting about how dysfunctional India is to your American friends. Anyways you are happy that you make more money in that part time job at the University Cafeteria than your friends back home.

Oh you are not that guy too? You already graduated and have a job? Then what, your life is settled (people say). You bought a car and posted 25 pics of it in FB. You make more money than you could spend. That nice little plot in ECR is looking not so distant now. Marriage talks are have started at house. You still reject it on the outside but dying to get married inside. You are slowly upgrading your furniture. Still from IKEA though. And all ready to move out from that 2BHK you are sharing with a roommate and move into a 1BHK as soon as you bring your wife on a dependent Visa.

What’s that? You are already married? Oh you just got married. Congratulations! And wife works in the US too? Bravo! Double the money, Double the saving. You start buying fancy rugs for your house, which you thought was a dumb idea 1 year back. Occasional Dine and Wine at expensive restaurants. Getaways to ski resorts for which you secured a great deal from online coupons.  No babies for 2 years you think. Total life enjoyment.

These categories mentioned above are a part of a very small subset of categories. You might fall under any of these categories or a lot of other categories which aren’t mentioned. But irrespective of that, if you are in your 20s you are bound to get thoughts about your life. About what your future will look like. What you have done in your past. Especially what you haven’t.

These thoughts might come to you during a lot of different circumstances. When you are standing in a long queue, waiting for your train, staring at the roof when you can’t sleep at night and most importantly, in the toilet. Not all of us get these thoughts on our own. Most of us need some external factors. Every girl from your undergraduate batch starts posting their marriage pictures, some even baby pics. That smart friend of yours got a job in a big tech company. That girl in school whom you didn’t pay attention as she looked very mediocre now looks like a model. That guy whom you played badminton with is now playing for the state. That junior guy from college gets into a university where you couldn’t get into. Your friend from work gets an ‘onsite’ opportunity. That Handsome friend of yours still has a lot of hair in his head while yours is on a exponential decrease. Those marriage advices you get from a variety of people ranging from Janitors to Taxi Drivers. Or even the climax of a movie

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There are a lot of these things which makes you think, Why didn’t I do it? What exactly have I done with my life? Did I choose the wrong career? Isn’t it too late to actually achieve anything in my life? When you get these thoughts seeing others, you may think that its jealousy. And you are right. This is jealousy. But I think there is nothing wrong about it. Infact let me google some nice quote about this. Ha, here it is.

I am sure the people who you look up to, those who put these questions in your head are infact going through the same thought process. Or did go through it before. Or will go through it at some point. Maybe people in the categories mentioned in the beginning all look at the people in the other categories and feel this way. So this is nothing new. Its all been said and done. I think the only way to benefit from these thoughts is to start answering them. You are still young to accomplish all these. You can still get that job you always wanted to. You can still play that sport that you left in school. And I think getting married is not a big difficulty. Getting married to the girl you like, now for that you need to work hard. But ya. Please restrain from approaching married girls, those ships have sailed. And to earn a billion dollars? You’ll have to work hard again. Maybe a little bit less hard than the previous point but still hard. Getting free marriage advice is not bad but the fact that they see you top to bottom and immediately start giving advise is bad. That is something which needs to be worked on. And for hair, there are a lot of products which are made from ariya mooligaigal from amazon kaadugal. I’ve seen in Raj TV. We still have hope.

So if these thoughts help you become a better person, help you realize your goals and help you move in the right direction why call it Quarter Life Crisis? Lets call it Quarter Life Enlightenment or Evaluation or even New Life Beginnings.