Quarterlife Crisis
This is the end, my friends
Features
The idea is straightforward -- trite, even, if you look at it straight in the face. "Let's whine about our problems and give it a legitimate psychological name!" we crowed.
8.1.2003Jennie Dorris
Rebecca Giantonio
Rebecca Giantonio
Quarterlife Crisis
28 Going on 13
Features
Gone were the days of making out with a stranger with whom I didn't share a language before passing out for the night on an Amsterdam bench. Any minute now, I would find myself dating a man who golfed and wore an ironed pocket T-shirt tucked into his khaki shorts.
7.28.2003Amy Hebert
Quarterlife Crisis
Actuallygoingonadate.com
Features
Vanessa and Jennie divulge the details of meeting and dating men they met online.
7.25.2003Jennie Dorris
Vanessa Juarez
Vanessa Juarez
Quarterlife Crisis
I Was a 23-Year-Old Mistress
Features
I thought about how I ignored my initial feelings that something wasn't right -- that he seemed too good to be true. Never did I imagine he was married, but something in me knew he wasn't fully letting me in. Maybe that’s why I waited three months until I referred to him as my boyfriend.
7.23.2003Rebecca Giantonio
Quarterlife Crisis
Car Talk
Features
I enjoyed driving lemons. It was a rite of passage thing, and their quirks became endearing after a while. I learned how to restart an engine in rush-hour traffic, start a car in neutral, use jumper cables and differentiate between when a car was just running loud and when it was screaming that something was wrong.
7.21.2003Jane Rushmore
Quarterlife Crisis
Fear and Loathing of the Real World
Features
The more I think about it, the more I have this strange desire to become a professional student; they never have to face the real world or payback any student loans, according to my accountant friend.
7.18.2003Cylor Spaulding
Quarterlife Crisis
A New York Minute
Features
After sheer torture for about 48 hours, the phone rang. I was offered the job and took it. I was excited for precisely two and a half seconds before I recalled the conversation he and I had about not having a long-distance relationship if I moved away.
7.16.2003Lindsay Brust
Quarterlife Crisis
Always the Bridesmaid
Features
Don't get me wrong, I am happy for each of my friends who is "tying the knot." But it is also getting a bit out of control. What's the rush? My grandparents have been married for over 50 years, and if people get married with the expectation that they will stay together into old age, then what difference do a few years make?
7.14.2003Liz Beltramini
Quarterlife Crisis
Love and Marriage
Features
When did I know I made the right choice? It's when I realized that she somehow saves me from my own disasters. She sticks by me when any sane person would likely flee to another country. For example, though I have problems tying my own shoes without help, a year ago I made the decision to box in the Golden Gloves. I didn't ask her, just offhandedly mentioned it in a conversation. "Wife, I'm going to fight in the golden gloves." A normal wife would have knocked me out cold right there, just to prove I was making a mistake. But she supported me.
7.11.2003Travis Daub
Brandon Stahl
Brandon Stahl
Quarterlife Crisis
Flying Solo
Features
But as September became October, I couldn't ignore that my mother's voice, equal parts bright and sarcastic, had turned sour and raspy. The phone calls, once a stage where I would trot out my latest anecdote, were filled with worries and speculation about all these tests, appointments and doctors. Instead of discussing the upcoming holiday season, we examined train schedules every other weekend to see at what time someone could pick me up from South Station.
7.9.2003Eric Gillin
Quarterlife Crisis
Becoming Dad
Features
There I was, 12 hours away from home, and my dad had almost died without any warning. I was afraid that something might happen before I was able to make it home. I booked a flight immediately. I realize now I've been afraid since that day.
7.7.2003Rob Margetta
Quarterlife Crisis
It's a spice rack: have no fear
Features
Mike offers ready-made shopping lists to get your working kitchen off the ground and addresses the idea of your rangetop -- Threat or menace?
7.4.2003Michael Corey
Quarterlife Crisis
Dining Alone
Features
What would a 'successful' lone dining experience be? If you're me, the best-case scenario involves an attractive woman introducing herself and sitting down. During dinner conversation, I would learn that she, too, is living alone. Like me, she is tempted to move to Canada until the next presidential election. But all she's really looking for, it turns out, is a relationship to keep her busy during the summer. That relationship, she declares, will have to end when August does.
7.2.2003Michael Corey
Quarterlife Crisis
Post-College Cathys
Features
Forget about the mother troubles, the bathing suit difficulties and the chocolate temptations. Young Cathys all over this fine country can't figure out where to meet a decent guy. The key word here is "decent." And, as a lot of our young adult girlfriends also know, "meet" in the post-college world has a different connotation.
6.30.2003Claire Zulkey
Quarterlife Crisis
The Asshole and the Vampire
Features
When I arrived, the bar was empty except for a chubby girl with brown hair sitting alone. I checked my watch, wondering if I was early, then looked up quickly when I heard a female voice call my name. The brown-haired girl was waving at me. I glanced behind me, hoping she was waving at someone else, but no such luck.
6.27.2003Trevor Thompson
Quarterlife Crisis
Bridging the Gap
Features
When I explained to them that Brown University is, in fact, a school filled mainly with white people from the east coast, they stared for a moment. "A Kennedy went there," my mother explained. "Oh, pues que bueno, then it’s okay," my grandma happily replied.
6.25.2003Alegre Rodriquez
Quarterlife Crisis
Parenthood: A Sure-fire Cure for Young Adult Ennui
Features
Exhausted after days of round-the-clock chaos, you and your wife rifle the pages of one baby book after another firing contradictory advice at each other, each secretly beginning to fear and loathe everything about your life together.
6.23.2003J. Daniel Janzen
Quarterlife Crisis
Like a Virgin
Features
Maybe all these years of unexplored sexuality will eventually work in my favor. Isn't it possible that I could be amazing in bed? I could have huge hidden talents that I don't even know about (I've been freakishly flexible since birth), and that's pretty exciting to me.
6.20.2003Merry Bananas
Quarterlife Crisis
How to Become a New Yorker
Features
You could have told me that, upon entering city limits, you were required to attach anvils to each nipple, and I would have thought "Hey, that’s New York!" No inconvenience was too much; it's New York!
6.18.2003Will Leitch
Quarterlife Crisis
Employee Disorientation
Features
I couldn't comprehend the extent of bovine behavior of these three "successful," older, "wiser," corporate professionals who threw temper tantrums and enjoyed every attempt to make their workers cry.
6.16.2003Amanda Grove
Quarterlife Crisis
Almost Famous
Features
If I thought I could win fans by selling my mother's kidneys on the black market and then writing a story about it, I would of course not do that. But I would pretend to, if I thought it would help.
6.13.2003John Green
Quarterlife Crisis
The Old Maid
Features
...When I think about how quiet and boring my imaginary friend is, I say screw the macho crap. It's time to find my soul mate -- or at least someone to keep me busy.
6.11.2003Cylor Spaulding
Quarterlife Crisis
The Lovebirds and the Bees
Features
... I feel inadequate that for the first time since I was 16 years old there's no long-term relationship to anchor me, while all my friends are getting married and having kids. Yeah, it sucks to go home sometimes. It sucks to be alone, idling, it seems, at 29.
6.9.2003A.J. Daulerio
Quarterlife Crisis
Quarterlife Tune-up
Features
My new PPO opened up the illicit world of medicine, and I had found a subculture of doctors and patients that were merely using each other for money and vanity. I was determined to join.
6.6.2003Jennie Dorris
Quarterlife Crisis
The Reluctant Graduate
Features
...I really knew I had a problem when I started referring to my roommates' joint graduation party as "our" event. I probably only imagine that people give me the "how can you be so lame" look, but I know I’m losing respect for me.
6.4.2003Michael Corey
Quarterlife Crisis
The Aged Partier
Features
I didn't want to drink too much, because it was a Thursday and I had to get up in the morning -- I also had to drive myself home that night, as crashing on someone's couch or floor is not an option for a working girl. I left at about 1:30 a.m. feeling pleased I'd stayed that long and feeling sad that that fact pleased me.
6.2.2003Liz Beltramini
Quarterlife Crisis
Time's Up
Features
I, a person who spent four years and $80,000 going to a private university with one of the top journalism programs in the nation, ended up at a job that requires only a GED and basic medical terminology course.
5.30.2003Amanda Repine
Quarterlife Crisis
Flight 25
Features
I kept telling myself it was fine to work at horrible jobs -- the point was to survive in New York, where I would get the inspiration to write fascinating stories about youthful gaiety, drinking, dancing and hand jobs in taxi cabs.
5.28.2003Trevor Thompson
Quarterlife Crisis
Defining Quarterlife
Features
I've been working in a call center for nine months now. It's amazing how all the rules I once lived by have completely changed in two short years.
5.26.2003Robby Fulton
Quarterlife Crisis
