Quarter Century

"It's about the relationship you have with yourself" - chimerashinobi

In a recent Style.com article that I read, Zoe Saldanha says

"Now that I'm later in my life, it's about accepting what I need and not what I want," the actress said. "What I want on my birthday is to go somewhere remote and be all melodramatic and feel bad for myself and what I need is the opposite. I need to be surrounded by the ones that I love."

It definitely is about what you need more so that what you want. In giving her comparision on what she wanted versus what she needed, I started thinking about my life. As a week has passed from my quarter-life (point) I decided to take the time to realize what I truly needed and make an effort to separate it from what I merely wanted.

Wants                                                                     Needs
To try a hundred different careers                               Pick two or three of interest and actually start pursuing them
To continue trying at a dying relationship                    Leave and learn to be without it
To continue to enjoy the comforts of home                 Gain some independent life experience
To write and write and write                                       Write seriously and start submitting for publishing
To stay in school forever                                           Applying/enrolling in appropriate courses depending on needs #1

You get the want versus need?

So what better time to start than now - 25 years - seems to be the most appropriate time for a fresh start or a new chapter. It's the beginning of adult hood (18 is not an adult no matter what you think) and it's still young enough to not be afraid of making mistakes and taking chances, while still forcing you to take life seriously.

However, in addition to making a list of wants and needs make a list of achievements to help you realize what you've done so far. And if you're having trouble coming up with one that you find satisfying, get your close friends to write one up for you - you'll be quite pleased.

So quarter-life crisis, my rear. It's more like a quarter-life blessing, to have the opportunity to take the time and analyse life thus far and realize what you need from here on forth. It's no longer about your wants but about your needs.

Living by your wants will never keep you satisfied because deep down inside there's a void in the 'needs' department. So get to it and realize what it is that you need and happy crisis-aversion!

Looking forward to what my follow-up post a year from now will be :)

Check out: The Forever Looming 5-Year Plan
*this post can be ignored by all those 25 year olds who have always had their lives together, though still encourage yourself to think about what you need from here on forth because no matter how together your life is, you probably still have goals (keeners, go-getters, slackers - everyone has a goal/dream/vision/fantasy)