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'Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties' offers insight to new generation of grads, reminds us we're not alone Date published: 3/11/2005 By KRISTIN DAVIS N THE FALL OF 2002, I passed a newly minted college diploma on my way out the door each morning to the job I'd always wanted--in the area where I'd hoped to live. At 21, I had youth on my side. The world was at my fingertips, all for the taking. Life should've been good. Two months earlier, I'd been hopefully poised on the threshold of adulthood, anxious to start my life. I'd accomplished what I set out to do. This, though, was precisely the problem. Now what? If I was lucky, I had a good 60 years left. What the heck would I do with 60 years? I panicked. Then I slipped into a depression. And I wondered what kind of person dreads an abundance of years, a future open to a sea of possibilities. Surely a twisted one. But guess what? I recently discovered that my experience was not a solitary one. That the incapacitating realization of "Now what?" is more common than uncommon. That (arguably) I wasn't crazy after all. That the months I spent festering and questioning and agonizing were, according to a 2001 national best-selling book, quite real. I had simply suffered a quarterlife crisis. Authors Alexandra Robbins and Abby Wilner officially coined the term in "Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties." The 200-page book explores the decade that is supposed to be roaring but is in fact riddled with uncertainty. The crisis affects "twentysomethings," Robbins and Wilner write. It strikes when graduates find themselves thrust into the real world, a place devoid of the structure and clear-cut pathways they always knew. The crisis is marked by "overwhelming instability, constant change, too many choices, and a panicked sense of helplessness," they write. Wow. How did they know? Robbins and Wilner know because, both in their 20s, they went though it. And their friends went though it. And so did the more than 100 young people they interviewed for "Quarterlife." In the fall of 2002--and well into 2003--while at the height of my crisis, I would have gobbled up the book, thankful to know I wasn't alone. As it turned out, I discovered it just a couple of months ago--well into recovery. I saw "Quarterlife" on a co-worker's desk and did a double take.
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