Everyone has heard about the quarter life crisis, when you turn 25 and it seems like your whole world is crashing down. But in my case, it started the minute I turned 20.
There’s a suffocating amount of pressure to do so much but it feels like there isn’t enough time in the day to get it all done. Our 20s are supposed to be the time to set the foundation for our careers and be academic weapons while also keeping our social lives intact — easy, right?
School Life
Being a full time student has taken over more than half my life.Â
Commuting to school and then coming home to finish papers or projects is practically what I do for the majority of the day, the majority of the week. It’s exhausting to say the least.
The closer I am to finishing my degree, the less time I have to do anything else. Sometimes I feel like I’m working for a piece of paper that only might get me a job.
Being a student is draining in every way possible, but it’s a huge part of what I do. So, once I graduate in a year, what will I do then?
I imagine that it should be freeing once I graduate- no more writing 10 page papers or reading 200 page books within a few days. I will be free to read and write what I want without the constraints of my professors’ rules or worry that I won’t get a passing grade.
But, where would I start? What would I write? Would I be wasting time? What if I should be doing something else? What if I finish every book I’ve ever wanted to read in just a few days? Then what?
The anxiety of not knowing what I’ll do once I finish school (which I have been doing for more than 10 years of my life) is overwhelming.Â
WORK lIFE
In addition to the stress of being a full time student, there’s work.
There’s all this pressure to get as many internships as possible so I can have the extensive experience every job position is looking for.
Yet, getting an internship seems impossible. I feel like I should’ve started looking for internships when I was still in diapers.Â
The more I think about it, the more worried I get. Where will I work? What will I do? If I don’t get an internship, how will I get the experience? Will my degree be enough or do I need to do two more years of school? What if I hate it? Does it pay enough? Am I going to benefit from this?Â
Work is a heavy topic in our 20s, even to friends and family. Everyone is wondering what I’ll be doing after school; I wish I knew.
Social Life
After school and work, there’s the third life I’m constantly neglecting: my social life.
Nothing sucks more than seeing the flea markets, concerts, campus events, and other events on social media that I’m missing out on because I’m stuck at home writing a paper.Â
Every week, it feels like there’s more on my to-do list.Â
And we can’t forget about the unrealistic desire that (let’s be honest) we want to be like what social media tells us we should be in our 20s.
Not only should I have already traveled out of the country by now, but I should also be going to the gym five days of the week while effortlessly sticking to a diet that I can afford with my well paying job.
The reality is that every time I do get a chance to go out, I can’t help but think about all of the assignments I have to do once I get home. When I go to the gym, I have no energy because I was up late studying.
It’s easy to neglect having a social life when everything else is consuming every minute of my day.
The work-school-life balance seems to be more like a myth than a reality to me. There’s just not enough time in the day, week, month, or year to do everything.