There’s no doubt in my mind that last year I experienced my very own Quarter Life Crisis. I had heard of other friends experiencing their own crisis and thought there was no way I’d ever go through that. I mean, I had my life together, knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, had people surrounding me that I loved and was completely healthy.
What a joke. Within a year I feel like my whole life flipped upside down. I had (and cured) thyroid cancer. While it’s close to 95% curable, it’s still one of the worst and most terrifying experiences of my life. But it taught me a lot. It showed me who my friends were. Like my best friend who sat by my side when I came out of surgery, listened to me crazy talk while hopped up on pain killers (which apparently was a good time for him), watched 3 hours of the Olympics with me, made fun of me for looking like a disaster (no make-up, hair a mess…you get the picture) and held my hand while getting poked, proded, and tubes changed. In that moment I realized how important he is to me and how blessed I am to have such an awesome best friend.
I questioned my career about a million times between January and December. I went back and forth about my passions, my past, and my future job opportunities. I made more pros and cons lists than I’d ever admit. I realized that while I loved fundraising and was pretty good at it, it just wasn’t my passion. I love the advertising/marketing/PR world and am so glad that I found an agency where I feel like I fit right into place. I’m at the right place at the exact right time in my life and I have no doubts at all about that.
I wondered what I wanted and who I wanted in my future. I wrote lists of the qualities that I needed to have in someone and finally I’ve thrown the list away.
I think this completely sums up what I went through last year though. Going through the whole Quarter Life Crisis though totally prepared me for an awesome “late twenties” experience. What about you? Anyone else have a Quarter Life Crisis? What’d you learn?
Life in the CLE 
That is so close to what I’ve been marinating in for the past year, that it brought tears to my eyes. While our circumstances are different in many ways, they’re also quite similar. I’m dealing with a lot of the angst of staring over and figuring out where I’m going from here and not being satisfied where I am currently. It is so frustrating. I thought I had it all figured out a year ago (I am approaching the one year anniversary that I made the huge mistake of accepting a “promotion” in disguise), and a year later I am starting from scratch in my career. It sounds like things keep going up for you, though, and I’m glad for you! I hope the same starts happening for me!!