Life, its twists and turns

Here's something I wrote a year ago....

I am 25 years old and like many other people of my age, I’m struggling to emerge from a quarter-life crisis. This crisis that I refer to has been precipitated by the multitude of decisions that have been thrust upon me at this juncture. Which job to take? What to do with my money? Should I stay with my parents or move out? When to get married? Whom to get married to? Should I marry at all?

Why do so many people of my age group end up like this? A large portion of those 25 years of mine was spent in schooling, yet I feel illiterate in the face of life’s challenges. I realize that the only things that my academic career has produced are two degree- certificates that can fetch me a job and little else.

Career-wise, I’m at a crucial juncture. It’s no longer like under-grad where I was looking at my job with a one-to-two year time frame; as a stopgap before signing up for a Masters. Now, I’ve completed my second degree and have to focus on building career skills, and this takes time, four to five years at the least. I’ll have to choose wisely. If things go right, it can be a rewarding life-changing experience. If things go wrong, it will lead to a lot of angst and pain. But how do I make this choice? How do I choose one career option over the other? Don’t chase money; chase the right job you might say? But which is the right one for me? How do I know?

In my personal-life things are'nt as grave. The only niggling worry is that I’ve built a cocoon around myself that I’m very comfortable with. I like the selfish and carefree life that I lead within it and shudder at the thought of letting someone in. More so, someone I don’t know well enough. Things haven’t spun out of control yet, but when the day comes when I’ll have to make a decision to let someone in, I’m not sure I’ll have the right answers.

Why do I find myself groping in the dark in this quarter-life crisis? Does the fault lie in my bringing up or my formal education? I guess it’s neither. I suppose this is what they call growing up. There’s only so much you can learn from a book, eventually, you’ll have to start listening to your heart, start trusting your gut. Some do it early, some do it late. Some do it with good consequences, some aren’t as lucky. Nevertheless, the day of reckoning shall come, when I'll have to stop kidding myself and look within to ask questions and seek answers. I think, the quarter life crisis is an indication that that day is around the corner.