Quarterlife Crisis - Book Review

Quarterlife Crisis: The unique challenges of life in your 20's - Alexandra Robbins and Abby Wilner

I feel like I'm getting ready to write a middle school book report... "I read the book ______ by _____. I thought it was very good. Here's why:" Except the fact that the grammar probably wouldn't have been that good.

In all seriousness, Quarterlife Crisis, I believe, is an excellent resource for people just out of college. I wish it was required reading for all seniors in college, prior to being allowed to receive their diploma.

Being a "20-something" myself, I can relate to some of the individual challenges addressed in this book. It is an interesting compilation of stories from "20-somethings" all across the country, from having just graduated college, to about 28 years old, each with a different perspective, but all with the same thing in common: What now? Do I focus on my career? Family? Social life? Finding a permanent love match? What about time for hobbies and fun?

Allow me to interject some of my personal experiences, as to why I chose to read this book. I graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 2005 with a Bachelors of Arts in Social Work. Sound impressive? It gets better. I was selected to receive a grant my senior year that would pay for my entire tuition that year, plus a stipend, and in return, I had to work for the State of NH doing child protection. I thought it was the best deal ever, since that's what I wanted to do in the first place! I took the grant, and in 2006, after 5 months of applying for, and being rejected from, the very job I had been trained to do, I was hired on to the Division of Children, Youth and Families in Portsmouth. Hooray! I got married the week after finishing college (and I'd like to emphasize that I do NOT, in any way, regret that decision) so I had my husbands career, and my career to consider in accepting a job. However, the longer I stayed at my job, the more miserable I became. At the start of 2007, I left my job, and had absolutely no direction in life. I was in the worst slump of my life. I was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and started medication. I took up knitting. Neither of those things have turned out to be bad... just not something that constituted a living. I became a substitute teacher, with the idea of either becoming a teacher, guidance counselor or nurse. Not really related, but okay. Finally, a friend suggested this book, and it was like a God-send! Just knowing I wasn't alone and that there were other people struggling with some of the same decisions in life made me feel so much better!

Anyway, enough about me. Elders may roll their eyes at the concept of this book, thinking "Well, I knew exactly what I wanted to do when I was 25 years old!" I don't want to argue with that generation, but I do want to emphasize the fact that today there are many more things in life competing for time: Technology, friends, family, jobs, pets, apartments, houses.... My personal opinion being that technology is the biggest thief of our time, but that is an argument for another post.

Robbins and Wilner do an excellent job emphasizing the fact that 20-somethings are all in the same boat, but most often don't realize it, and so they fall victim to things like depression and anxiety, thinking that they are the only people on the planet who didn't know what they wanted to do. They talked to dozens of 20- somethings, and, for the most part, the authors merely relate their stories rather than trying to offer advice or an easy solution. The individuals they talked to describe the pressure of coming from a relatively stable environment, such as college, and then being flung into a world where they have to worry about finding out exactly what they want to do, land the right job, pay the bills, and still manage to have time for friends and family. But these 20-somethings also tell how getting into the wrong field and the occasional failure helped them find careers in which they could be happy.

Quarterlife Crisis is NOT a "how-to" book for someone looking for a road map on landing the right job, getting the girl or anything of that sort. But it is an entertaining, often accurate, depiction of the life of a recent college grad trying to find their place in the world. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is graduating this year, recently graduated, or the parents of a 20-something who can't figure out why their child has bounced through 14 jobs in the last 3 years.

This book is available for purchase on Amazon.com, and at most major book retailers.