Boston's Quarter-Life Crisis

Out of all the newspaper articles I've read on the quarter-life crisis, Meredith Goldstein's Boston Globe article was by far the best in capturing it. While Goldstein mainly focuses on Bostonians' perspectives of quarter-age angst (it is a Boston newspaper after all), she uses psychologists' and authors' opinions to paint a well-rounded picture of what twenty-somethings are facing today.

The most striking part of the article comes in the beginning, where Goldstein describes a party that her interviewees are hosting. The theme of the costume party was to dress up as what you wished you had been by the time you turned 25. People disguised themselves as "working professionals, artists, poets, and musicians" according to Goldstein.

I think this party truly encapsulates the idea of the quarter-life crisis. There is something distressing in the fact that twenty-year-olds are dreaming of obtaining realistic jobs, like working professionals, as compared to the dream jobs everyone had as little kids, which were more akin to astronauts and movie stars. However, there is also something self-indulgent in throwing a party to celebrate your lack of success. This article made me question: how valid is the quarter-life crisis? Additionally, does the quarter-life crisis come with any benefits? Can we skip the mid-life crisis if we start questioning our life decisions in our early twenties?