Dr. Penelope

I came down with something last month.  It was a mysterious illness. One I couldn't immediately identify and wrap my fingers around.  

My parents tried to figure out what was up. They would be extra nice to me, and indulge me with special lunch trips and gentle soothing voices.  My sister shed tears for me, mourning my discomfort.  I genuinely appreciate their efforts and I am so grateful for their support but alas, it is still my own fight to face, my own wounds to heal.

I've been walking around with the illness, spreading it sometimes to my friends.  For those friends I've contaminated, I apologize but hey, misery loves company.  

Finally, I decided to do something about it; I decided to Google it.  And you wouldn't believe what I found.

Wikipedia best provided the words to my symptoms.  

Characteristics of quarter-life crisis may include^{[citation needed]}:

• feeling "not good enough" because one can't find a job that is at one's academic/intellectual level
• frustration with relationships, the working world, and finding a suitable job or career
• confusion of identity
• insecurity regarding the near future
• insecurity concerning long-term plans, life goals
• insecurity regarding present accomplishments
• re-evaluation of close interpersonal relationships
• disappointment with one's job
• nostalgia for university, college, high school or elementary school life
• tendency to hold stronger opinions
• boredom with social interactions
• loss of closeness to high school and college friends
• financially-rooted stress (overwhelming college loans, unanticipatedly high cost of living, etc.)
• loneliness
• desire to have children
• a sense that everyone is, somehow, doing better than you

Hmmm...13 out of 16.  Yep, I officially diagnose myself with "quarterlife crisis."  Alright! Identifying the cause is half the battle.  Now let's see what we can do about it.

Lucky for me, there's this whole world out there called, um, the internet and as I was browsing it one day, I stumbled across my doctor.

Penelope Trunk, no M.D. at the end.

"Don't worry, this isn't going to hurt. you won't feel a thing."

Penelope Trunk is a writer, entrepreneur, and blogger who gets that we young people these days will not end up with one career for the rest of our lives. She understands that we will graduate from college with hardly an inkling or a clue about what we want to do. Or that we want to do it all.  She empathizes our confusion over the booming technology trend, the ever-fickle, swiftly-changing industries. She knows that we're often so preoccupied with that flickering computer screen, answering emails from our cell phones and music blasting from the ipod to our ears that we can't see the big picture, the big idea, the big purpose.  

From advising us on how to talk to a friend who's just been laid off (asking "how's the job hunt?" might not be the best conversation starter), to How to Build a Career as an Artist (forget about being a starving artist), Penelope delves on many issues that we face today.  She's also witty, eloquent and damn relatable and I've been having a ball receiving consultations from her on a daily basis.  

Below are some of the other posts that I've found to be super-helpful.

• How to beat the system to get a great job (use other people's resumes to build yours)
• Don't try to dodge the recession with grad school (grad school pointlessly delays adulthood)

And... most importantly...

• How to figure out what you should be doing with your life (give yourself time to do it, time to fail, time to get lost)

I know these are all advice floating around my ears for the past couple of years but because they're all organized, categorized, bulleted, and condensed into one easy-to-read blog which I can access on a daily basis, print out and glance at whenever I feel the need to, little by little, I'm starting to breathe again, my brows are un-furrowing, and my heart is shifting from my stomach back to its original spot.

I understand this illness is stubborn and it's going to stick around for awhile.  But I'm a fighter so bring on the pain! (And the bandages.)