Little Star's Realm

• feeling "not good enough" because one can't find a job that is at his/her academic/intellectual level a
  
• frustration with relationships, the working world, and finding a suitable job or career a
  
• confusion of identity a
  
• insecurity regarding the near future a
  
• insecurity regarding present accomplishments a
  
• re-evaluation of close interpersonal relationships a
  
• disappointment with one's job a
  
• nostalgia for university or college life a
  
• tendency to hold stronger opinions a
  
• boredom with social interactions a
  
• financially-rooted stress a
  
• loneliness a
  
• desire to have children (not yet)

These emotions and insecurities are not uncommon at this age, nor at any age in adult life. In the context of the quarter-life crisis, however, they occur shortly after a young person – usually an educated professional, in this context – enters the "real world". After entering adult life and coming to terms with its responsibilities, some individuals find themselves in a world of career stagnation and extreme insecurity. As the emotional ups-and-downs of adolesence and college life subside, many in the quarter-life crisis experience a "graying" of emotion. While emotional interactions may be intense in a high school or college environment – where everyone is roughly the same age and hormones are highly active – these interactions become subtler and more private in adult life. Nobody wants to admit to feeling like a 'loser' (especially not twentysomething men). This secrecy intensifies the problem. In his book, Barr reveals many of the anxieties twentysomethings have. Chief among these is the fear that everyone else is having an amazing time in their twenties. Furthermore, a contributing factor to this crisis may be the difficulty in adapting to a workplace environment. In college, professors' expectations are clearly given and students receive frequent feedback on their performance in their courses. By contrast, in a workplace environment, a person may be, for some time, completely unaware of a boss's displeasure with his performance, or of his colleagues' dislike for his personality. Office politics require interpersonal skills that are largely unnecessary for success in an educational setting. Emerging adults eventually learn these social skills, but this process – sometimes compared to learning another language – is often highly stressful.