Quarter Life Crisis by Lindsey Moss

Graduating college in a down economy was a very influential time of my life.  I consider myself to be a very driven individual and pretty much always knew my path in life: do well in high school so I can go to college and then get some sort of job.  My parents have always been a great support system and were a large guidance through my first quarter of life.  In addition to their support, I had also been
in a long-term relationship for both high school and college.  As you can imagine, we were best friends and he was a huge part of my life.

Upon graduation from college, there was a significant shift in my outlook on life.  Many of my friends were having a difficult time finding jobs and although rather broke, we were all trying to live above our income bracket.  I personally felt like I had lost my path.  I luckily convinced my internship to hire me on full time, which I discovered through Cindy Brown and her Real World Planning class.  This class happened to be the only time in college that challenged me to think about what I wanted to do as a career, and help me figure out how to get started.  However, after the job scare was settled, life still didn’t feel quite right.

My boyfriend had been going to school and hour away, and I had always believed when we graduated we would end up in the same city, both get great jobs and live happily ever after.  All of a sudden, that dream seemed scary and unreasonable, and I realized I needed to find myself without the pressure of another person. After all, we had been dating for most of my adult life!  It was scary to think of my life without him, but I knew it was something I had to do for myself.  My mom kept saying, “If it is meant to be, it will be.”  But, of course, at the time I had no idea what she meant by that. Read more…