Quarter-life Crisis? Not So Much.

Having just turned twenty-five (yesterday), I was somewhat expecting to wake up this morning in the middle of a quarter-life crisis. I’m twenty-five, still living at home thanks to six-figure’s worth of student loan debt, and single (although that's by choice). But instead of waking up mid-panic attack, I couldn’t stop thinking about this one TED Talk I'd watched about how your twenties are the time to change whatever it is about yourself that you think needs changing.

To be quite honest, I haven’t read Dr. Meg Jay’s book, The Defining Decade, but her TED Talk from way back in 2013 still resonates with me. So many defining moments happen in people’s twenties—leaving home, starting careers, marriage, children, etc.—that some of what was said is just common sense. I mean, there’s almost always a new Facebook official wedding engagement on my feed these days, and my friends who are only a few years older than me say that it only gets worse the closer you get to thirty.

What really stuck with me though about the talk was that twentysomethings’ brains are still growing and being rewired for adulthood. I thought all of that had stopped years ago, but apparently twentysomethings are in a developmental "sweet spot" that we should take full advantage of. I kind of find that empowering as I stare my mid (and eventually late) twenties in the eye.  Scary and intimidating, sure, but knowing that the decisions I make now could influence my life for the next thirty, forty, or fifty years makes me want to live more intentionally now.  That can't be a bad thing, right?

Had any of you seen this TED Talk before? What'd you think?

...and now I can stop stressing out about my first post.