Earlier this year I experienced the first pangs of the quarter life crisis. I can honestly say that, at that point, I didn't know that it even existed. Now I am a firm believer. According to Wikipedia (yes I know, not the most reputable source for facts) the quarter life crisis is a term applied to the period of life immediately following the major changes of adolescence, usually ranging from the ages of 21 - 29. The term is named by analogy with mid-life crisis. It is now recognized by many therapists and professionals in the mental health field, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarter-life_crisis).

I recognized the first signs of the crisis as I hurtled towards my 25th birthday. My 24th had been uneventful, no nervous breakdown, no emotional upheaval as my life wasted away, no chaos what-so-ever. Nope that came with 25. I don't know what it is about 25 that feels serious, but for me there was definitely something. As though I was crossing the threshold from wild youth to conservative adult. All of the quarter life crisis turmoil struck. What am I doing with my life? Why I haven't I published a book? Am I happy? Do I spend too much time at work? What is that weird growth on my cat's stomach? (just kidding about that last one). But really, I hit the edge and found myself peering down the long rocky slope of my past and wondering what the hell have I done with my life?

I started to do some research. The first thing that I discovered is that the quarter life crisis really does exist. There are books, seminars, even movies that depict this chilling downward spiral towards dissatisfaction. Abby Wilner and Alexandra Robbins had actually written a book called Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties. They described my exact feelings of apprehension and unrest. In some sad way I felt better knowing that I was not alone.

The causes of the quarter life crisis range far and wide. For some, the crisis ignites due to an inability to find a job after graduation. They've spent the entirety of their young adult life on a production line to success that doesn't actually guarentee success. Instead, they finish on that fateful gradation day, diploma in had, only to find out that employers want EXPERIENCE. So they hunker down, start at the bottom, ready to work their way up. But then comes the debt issue. How does entry level pay for $50,000 in student loans, plus the car payment, rent, the cell phone, and the social life? Now they're stuck in a job they despise, working to pay off interest, and the fun that they were still having, just a year earlier, has vanished before them. Parties, movies, dating, bar crawls, road trips, extreme adventures, camping slip out the back door. Only to be replaced by bills, sitcoms, water cooler conversations, cubicle entertainment, and surfing the net. Ouch, wouldn't you have a breakdown?

Then add the media. A daily stream of twenty-something success mocks you from every tabloid, television, and website. Twenty year old millionaires that hit it big with internet businesses, reality TV shows, and crazy stock investments. Their ideas, their stories don't seem that far off. So you get back up, pull on those itchy navy blue trousers, hop in your economical cavalier, and drive to the office. Meanwhile you spend the day mentally concocting your plan for escape, your innovative proposal that's bound to blow everyone out of the water. Except that it doesn't - because those day dreams didn't include financing, business plan, and just basic logic. Instead you're left with that feeling of defeat, that ";it can't be done"; mentality. It grows and swells and finally bursts - resulting in - the quarter life crisis.

Now this is just one scenario. For some it's lack of marriage proposals, others have gotten four DUI's, others still can't pick a major. However, one thing is certain, more and more people are experiencing the quarter life crisis.

I think that the quarter life crisis occurs when you're expectations severely clash with your reality. Many kids are raised in a fairytale environment. I don't mean that their life is perfect, but the information that they receive is sugar coated. So many experiences in childhood and adolescence are focused on happily ever after. In movies the nerdy girl always gets the boy, the athlete wins the championship, and the bad guy loses. In real life these fairytales rarely exist. But at what point does anyone tell the kids? In high school? No, in fact the universal truth in high school is get good grades, go to college, and you'll live happily ever after. After what? After age seventy when you get to retire from that fifty-hour a week job? Even retirement is a dissipating illusion in our economy. So when does this happily ever after come into play? When do they get a good dose of reality in the form of advice instead of experience?

I graduated from high school and went straight into a big university. I believed that when I put in my four years I would get a great job and the rest would be history. The I started to hear the horror stories. That hoards of bachelor degree carrying students couldn't find jobs. That a masters or a doctorate was the only way to success. This was only one in the many harsh realities that began to manifest. I found myself waking up to a world that was no longer quite so agreeable. Meanwhile as I sat in school the student loans were racking up.

It was a few years and many more truths before the quarter life truly began. Spurred in part by my waning belief in real success and the mundane existence of day to day life. It ended (at least in part) when I left my job to get back to writing. I had abandoned writing to join the rat race of success that I'd bought into. Success in the form of a fancy apartment, new car, flashy clothes, but sadly nothing of substance. The day that I liberated myself from that world, I also liberated myself from the crisis. So maybe it's not age so much as lifestyle, luckily lifestyle can be changed.