“˜Quarterlife crisis’ frazzles power-hungry youth

  Jonah Lalas Lalas is a fourth-year
international development studies and political science student who
challenges you to question your beliefs and assumptions. Click
Here for more articles by Jonah Lalas

You may have heard of or witnessed the midlife crisis of
countless forty-somethings, but I’ll bet you haven’t
heard about the new trend in nervous breakdowns that may await you
in your immediate post-college years: the “quarterlife
crisis.”

Despite the slogans you hear from professors and CNN about
“economic opportunities” and “living in the best
of times,” many young adults fresh out of college are hitting
one of the most depressing moments of their lives at earlier
ages.

A recent New York Times article (“Is This the Face of a
Midlife Crisis?” June 24) explores the lives of many
individuals in their late 20s to early 30s. These people graduated
from Ivy League schools and established themselves as successful
citizens and major players in the global corporate market with
six-digit salaries.

Yet as the article points out, many of these successful people
are beginning to question the direction of their lives and even the
point of their existence. It describes what people are now calling
the “quarterlife crisis.”

  Illustration by ERICA PINTO/Daily Bruin The quarterlife
crisis is basically a midlife crisis experienced at an early age
like 28. Usually, when people think of the midlife crisis, the
“American Beauty” image of a sedated Kevin Spacey
sitting in his jail cell-like cubicle at work or a frantic Annette
Benning breaking down because she failed to make a real-estate sale
may immediately come to mind.

But hardly anyone expects to find themselves faced with the
prospect of an unfulfilling life at what is supposed to be the crux
of their “good-timing” 20s.

What can explain such a contradiction?

While there is probably more than one answer to this question, I
believe that the structure of university life and society’s
expectations of young adults help to set the conditions for the
quarterlife crisis. The money driven mentality that pervades
institutions of higher learning ““ especially prestigious ones
““ diverts people’s attention from reflecting upon their
own lives and asking the fundamental question, “Am I
happy?”

From the beginning of grade school, many of us at UCLA have been
expected to strive for the best grades and participate in the most
extracurricular activities so that we can build up our resume to
get into the top colleges. Meanwhile, we are encouraged to
participate in community service that oftentimes ends up becoming
mere token feel-good efforts that do little to improve the lives of
those most in need.

Afterward, once we are admitted into a world-renowned
university, we are uncritically taught to work toward law school,
medical school, business school or to get hired by a major firm or
company where we can make lots of money, settle down in a suburb
and have 1.2 kids.

But amid all of this drive to succeed and this blind ambition,
we may find ourselves without the time to stop and really ask
whether or not we feel fulfilled. Consequently, the conflicts that
are avoided during college reemerge once more.

Yet what can explain the fact that the nervous breakdown takes
place at an earlier age than the midlife crisis? This can
again be attributed to the unique time that we find ourselves in.
The expectation that we follow the standard path of
“success” is a lot stronger than ever. 

Our society’s paragons of virtue are not human and civil
rights fighters like A. Philip Randolph, Philip Vera Cruz or
Dolores Huerta, but corporate leaders like Bill Gates and Steve
Jobs. Everyday, people pay financial worship to multinational
corporations such as Wal-Mart, McDonald’s and Nike.

Many of us have been socialized to dream that we may one day
hold positions of financial power that expand beyond U.S. borders.
The dream of becoming corporate giants with multiple investments,
four different houses, a yacht and a Ferrari F355 has never been
stronger.

I believe that Beyonce Knowles of Destiny’s Child said it
best, “I’m young, I want a certain amount of money and
by the time I’m 30, I don’t want to work” (MTV,
July 4). With popular stars making such statements, it’s no
wonder that children learn to pursue individual monetary interests
at early ages.

The pressure and the expectation to become financially well-off
has led students to pursue material and monetary satisfaction
without developing any sense of critical understanding or
compassion. A college education simply becomes a means to an end,
rather than an end itself, where students question the realities
they have been presented with and critically examine their own
lives.

Like heartless robots, we are expected to program our future for
the next 10 years and go about our day-to-day lives toward some
goal that has been outlined for us. We become more and more
alienated from our communities and even our classmates. Students no
longer are people with their own unique experiences and
personalities; instead, they too are only used as study buddies, or
represent mere competition to be defeated.

The New York Times article describes Jeff Meyer, a software
engineer, who found himself in a quarterlife crisis. Bombarded by
the idea that numbers and sciences ruled the world, he was led to
believe that the idea of working for the community was
“absurd.” But when Meyer left college, he
“realized there’s a lot of materialism that comes along
with the engineering field and there has to be a place for
emotion.”

It is this lack of human compassion and increased alienation
that has helped to contribute to people’s quarterlife
crisis.

In the search for the holy grail of fortune, we lose our ability
to feel for others, especially those who have been oppressed.
Without that compassion, our lives become devoid of love. The
fact is that in our times of extreme individualism, the connection
with our community gets broken and we end up forgetting to stop and
appreciate the beauty that surrounds us.

Many of us, in our desire to “succeed,” avoid
conflict and select the easiest road where we’ll meet the
least resistance. But we must strive to not lose contract with that
human compassion that provides us with comfort and fulfillment.

Otherwise, we will find ourselves becoming slaves to our own
success. The cars, jewelry and mansions that we consume will end up
consuming us. We will find ourselves in a quarterlife crisis going
mad. Now is the best time to question yourself and your
reality.

Trust me, you do not want to wake up to your job five years from
now isolated, regretful and unhappy on Monday mornings, wishing it
were Saturday.