"I think one of the reasons why kids today have quarterlife crises is because we’ve seen how little happiness the myth that a house in the suburb with 2.5 kids and a dog and a “comfortable” job has afforded our parents and maybe even also our grandparents. We have the self-awareness to realize that just because this is the ideal that has been sold for 60+ years, that doesn’t make it the right lifestyle for everyone, that it may not be the right lifestyle for us. At the same time, though, there is little opportunity to have a different kind of life. At every turn, people try to push you back into the mainstream. Get that 9-to-5 job. Buy that house. Snag that husband. Have those babies. Don’t forget the dog!
There is also, of course, a fear that if we do something different, we’ll end up in a place that we like even less, that we’re even less suited for. Obviously, this is a phenomenon only for those who have the certain degree of economic privilege to make this sort of choice possible to begin with, and for that reason a lot of people treat considering making different choices as frivolous. At the same time, some of the questions that underscore the quarterlife crises so many experience are important. They challenge the idea that the status quo is the right choice, that it should be the only choice and the choice toward which all people should strive. A person having a quarterlife crisis asks: is this lifestyle really all it’s cracked up to be?"
Twenty Something: Instead of traveling, writing and trying to figure out what we want, should we be marrying and having babies? (via robot-heart) (via bringmethathorizon) (via siddman)