Quarter Life Crisis

Granted, I haven't had one yet, but it seems like everyone's writing about one, and hey! I just turned 25, so I'm the prime candidate to be writing about it. And so let the narcissistic babble begin!

By all means, I concede I'm lucky to be born in a time where 25 isn't the life expectancy, and is pretty much the beginning rather than the end of a lifetime. But then again, the current world needs you to be 25 to start to achieve something, unless you're a crazy prodigy like Nadal or Federer. And doing a PhD doesn't mean that your thesis will be in any way world changing, so it's bleak. So ok, I won't be conquering the world anytime soon like Alexander the Great, but I won't be dying of a weird fever either, so I'll live with it.

I've had a nice childhood, sheltered, though I've been sick quite a bit, so much so that I know how to avoid and cure myself of most non-life-threatening diseases. That, coupled with the fact that my crazy exercise-holic genes are starting to wake up means that I could someday, in fact be close to six-pack abs, instead of the beer-belly I have, which is ironic considering I barely drink, if at all. I've made some very dear friends in my life, ones who I think would turn their lives upside down for me, some interesting foes as well, but what the heck, one great man once said, you can't fool everyone all of the time. I also am blessed with a wonderful family, who are in no small way responsible for who I am, the good parts anyways :) . So apart from the fact that I'm still a mostly broke student, you might think I don't have much to be sad about. Which is true, except that thanks to a nice internship by a very generous company (lets not spoil the fun by naming them :P ) my bank balance has a heart beat too, and is not the flat-lining train wreck it once was.

On the home front, I've had a few heartbreaks, and have probably (and hopefully, I'm not sadistic, but it still feels weirdly good to think this) broken a few myself. If you're thinking about what I might be sad about on this front and haven't figured it out, look at the nearest giggling fool who's reading this with you. My name's been mispronounced about a million times by now (not that I mind, I quite like it!), and I've earned a few interesting nicknames along the way, the newest one all of 3 days old. I'll very happily concede, my idea of what a happy and successful life should be has changed quite a bit. About 10 years ago, I believed a successful life would entail a CS degree from an IIT, an MBA from IIMA, and a well paying job from some company. 5 years ago I was sure I'd still have items 1 & 3 from that list. 3 years ago I became sure that item 3 was untenable at the time, and it's probably a good thing I did, cause it now seems that it's tenable again, after I finish my PhD, after hopefully 3 more years, so there's room for change still. So you never know, I might still become that prof my dad always dreamed I would. I have been told I'm a good talker and teacher, but I've realised that's necessary for any job.

In my life I've been told I'm very mature, as well as extremely immature, and I'm very happy I'm both of those extremes. If there's one thing I've learnt, it's that it's very important to grow up, yet remain that little kid, it helps you maintain perspective, and remain happy overall. I'll need all of that perspective to get through the next few years. You see, that I'm now the next unmarried bachelor in my generation, and my siblings are all happily married. So I'm now under the watchful eyes of "The all seeing Eye", not of Sauron, but of all the aunties and uncles who like to point out that I'm next. Unfortunately, none of them are old enough for the counter quip that they are too.

If it were not for a pesky Olympic shooter from India and a few other idiots, I'd even be close to the top search result on Google. All in all, I've achieved most of the things on my list of things I wanted to achieve, so I'm quite content. But the fact that I'm happiest about, is that the list hasn't shortened one bit, it's only grown longer, and quite likely, always will, and until that keeps happening, I'm unlikely to ever have a crisis, quarter or otherwise.