Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties (Paperback)

There I was once again, meandering aimlessly around the narrow pavements of Orchard Road after the ritualistic weekly Japanese classes on Saturday evening and I felt so lost! I went to Kinokuniya hoping for some inspiration as to what I want to do in life but that yield nothing. Exasperated, I went down to grab some Japanese fried noodles and takoyaki (most unhealthy but fulfilling) and decided, at the spur of the moment, to go up to the national library hoping for yet another inspiration of sorts. None in the fiction section, none in the romance section, and just as I was about to leave the self-help section, the book suddenly grabbed me from the corner of my eye. Quarterlife Crisis! That sounds quite relevant and I spent the next hour sitting at the cafe reading and reflecting about my life.

Just as the label 'teenagehood' only surfaced and became a social focus the past decade or two ago, I think the quarterlife crisis (which is roughly the time between leaving the safe ambits of structured education to settling down with a career and family) is exactly what I am facing. As compared to other already highlighted phenomenon in life such as mid life crisis and teenagehood where certain support mechanisms are in place, more often than not people tend to usher fresh graduates into working society without really discussing how they can go about handling the sudden platter of choices that were pushed to them.

Anyway, though it did not offer solutions, it offer suggestions which I realised I have been practising actively doing what I think I like and letting things unravel themselves instead of following a well-trodden path. I came up with the following yesterday while almost falling asleep in Japanese class:

Things I wanna do in my life
- master Japanese / JET (2 years)
- master English / CELTA (4 months)
- learn the piano / hobby
- learn French / ?

- long term career option / mass communications (US university, 2 years)
- long term career option / instructional design (US/UK/Australia university, 2 years)
- long term career option / education (US/UK/Australia university, 2 years)
- education / MOE (4 years)

I am now 25 years old!

26 - 2007 - RP
27 - 2008 - RP/?JET
28 - 2009 - RP-CELTA/JET
29 - 2010 - JET
30 - 2011 - ?JET/?RP
31 - 2012 - RP
32 - 2013 - masters
33 - 2014 - masters
34 - 2015 - MOE
35 - 2016 - MOE .etc.

I realised through this exercise that I have a lot of things I will like to experience and time is definitely not on my side. I better hurry!

http://www.amazon.com/Quarterlife-Crisis-Unique-Challenges-Twenties/dp/1585421065