Quarter life crisis

[dmacfour]

I feel like I'm about to go through a quarter life crisis. The last couple of weeks, I've been feeling a bit burnt out with school. Everyone around me is ready to be done, and I feel the same. I found one of my best female friends crying in a stairwell today. She was overwhelmed with emotion, because she feels stuck going down a path to a meaningless career, one that she doesn't want to do.

I feel the exact same way. I am in Psychology, and almost done with all of the classes required for it. The disturbing thing about it is I don't know what I want to do with my degree. I need to go to grad school to get a decent paying job, but grad school sounds terrible, dry, and insanely boring to me. Even if I switch majors, I'll be going for up to 2 more years. Either way, I'll be in school longer than I want to be.

The worst part is that I an no longer looking forward to "the real world". I've been hearing middle age people lament about how they are beat down by the monotony of the daily grind to the point where they feel dead inside. They are tied down and in mega debt, have a job that barely gets them by, spending 90% of their time working so they can spend 10% of their time doing what they actually want to do.

I don't want to end up like that, but I feel like I am already being funneled down that path.

[NickH]

I had this same exact thing happen to me last year.

I was going to school for sports management to become a sports agent because I love sports and it seems like there good money there. I realized I have been in undergrad for 5 years and finishing in a few months. I would have to go to grad school for 2 more years for a law degree, so Id be 25 by the time im done with school. Then I would have to go into a career that I really am not passionate about, but *might* be worth it by the time im 45 and have payed my dues.

I threw that idea right out the window and asked myself what am I passionate about? Disregarding money, what kind of job would I want to do for the rest of my life that would be fulfilling and that I would enjoy? My passion is tennis, so I am dedicated to finding a job with my two degrees I will come out of undergrad with within the sport. My ultimate goal would be to own/manage a tennis facility, but I am looking into the USTA and or ATP/WTA for jobs after school.

I dont want to wake up 20 years down the road regretting wasting my time chasing the money only to be miserable, working 70 hour work weeks, traveling around the country for meetings and worrying about signing clients. Id rather make decent pay my whole life and enjoy what I do.

[Nicholas Fahrenheit]

You guys live in america right? Of course you are going to end up doing menial jobs for very little money to pay off massive debts. I'm in a vibrant university, doing the perfect degree for me, in and around casual work that gets me 400 a week. I'm loving every minute of it. America throws you into a big pot full of useless degrees and train wreck careers. The level of antidepressants being prescribed in your country is skyrocketing. Which costs money.. antidepressants are self metabolising enzyme inducers, so the dosage has to be increased over time, eventually you end up needing 5x the dose for the same feeling of contentment for 5x the price. But you know, theres always australia.

[Tom Church]

NF - typical Ozzy exaggeration and self patriotism!

You guys should read 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris, or check out his blog; perhaps it'll give you a few new ideas.

[denial121]

I read all these things and I just want to tell you who begin to notice that people are selfish and that maybe they are friends that you thought you were so close not only the greatest people you have met and the people who lost contact with some of the more important.