Musings from a woman on the edge

By: Katrina Penaflor 
Managing Editor

For all the people out there struggling with just about everything in their early 20s, I’m with you.

I’ve often heard the phrase “mid-life crisis” to describe people in their 40s who panic halfway through their life because they’re making a difficult transition into a more serious stage of adulthood.

Well, I’m not in my 40s, although my addiction to Lifetime movies and constantly using the phrase “kids these days” could lead you to believe otherwise, but I do very much believe I’m in the transitional stage of a quarter-life crisis.

Or maybe that’s not even the correct phrase to use here. But I think a lot of students can understand the feeling I’m trying to portray: nearing the end of college where everything tends to get more and more confusing.

I always think, “Wow, I’ve been in college for four years now, I’ve totally got a handle on things.” Wrong. The only thing I have a handle on is a glass of wine after a long week of asking for advice from friends who are succeeding at the whole “being an adult thing” better than I am.

Like, in the office of The Journal the other day our EIC asked if I could call back a person I just spoke to on the phone. He mentioned “*67,” or “*65” or something—see I can’t even remember the right phrase—and I literally had no idea what he meant.

This lead to the questions, could I handle working in an office setting? Do I even want to work in an office in the future? I have no freakin’ clue.

Senior year of college has turned into an endless track of these kinds of questions. So, what is my advice for people suffering a potential quarter-life crisis like I am? I don’t think I have any, because if I did I’d be filtering it into my soul on a daily basis.

I guess the best thing I can say is that no one actually has it all figured out, or ever fully will.