Coming full circle

What is the Quarter-Life Crisis?

The quarter-life crisis is the time you your life in which you realize that the first decisions you made as an adult are either not easy to deal with, or were not very good decisions, and you have no one to blame but yourself.

I would like to site the following examples:

1.) Going to school out of state, and then realizing you’ve racked up a 10 year debt.
2.) Studying something you have a passion for, unfortunately leaving you with no skills for a profitable profession.
3.) Moving to a foreign country for “true love,” then wondering if there is such a thing.
4.) Trying your hand at management in Sin City, then finding your tolerance for the world is low and your tolerance for alcohol is high.

I don’t know who , in their right mind, would do some of these pathetic things (sigh), but they are decisions that 20-somethings tend to make, thus leading into the QUARTER-LIFE CRISIS.
In retrospect I believe that the quarter-life crisis, for myself, was part of coming full circle as a person -- not just simply a segment of time in my life. I thought about the word “crisis” and what that could actually mean. Then, an explanation came to me in the voice of Tula’s father in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding:”

The root of the word, “crisis” comes from the German word “Kreise” meaning “circle” – and there you go.”

20-somethings are so into themselves, their own wants and needs that they tend to make life choices in denial of the world around them. So, back to the German translation – when you switch the “I” and “E” in the word “Kreise” (circle) the word becomes “Kriese” which is the direct translation for the English word “crisis.” When you put yourself, or the “I” before the reality of the world, you tend to cause problems for yourself. Ah ha! We have come full circle yet again!