That Time I Made a Quarter Life Crisis List

A few weeks ago I turned 25 and so far I’ve been feeling pretty great about it. 25 is a very legit age to be: it feels old enough to be taken relatively seriously but still young enough to screw up a few times without doing any major damage. Most of my colleagues are turning 30 and couldn’t be happier to be leaving their twenties behind, and I hope when I turn 30 I feel the same. But for now, I think it’s pretty great to be exactly where I am.

Or at least I did until last night.

About fifteen days into adjusting to my new age my trusty pal Anxiety and I had a little chat at around one a.m. Here I am thinking things are going alright and then she (Anxiety is DEFINITELY female and you can’t argue with me about that) starts pointing out all the things that maybe aren’t going alright. Like that late night Ben & Jerry’s snack I had before bed, or how I re-watched an entire season of Vampire Diaries last week instead of working on an upcoming paper for grad school. Like my mom dropping little hints over the phone about who else my age just got engaged or that my savings account is just as likely to have $10,000 in it as $10 and maybe I should check on that…

And it’s my fingers scrolling through my Instagram feed but it’s Anxiety’s voice in my head, pointing out how amazing her abs look and how successful she is at her new job and that girl’s beautiful wedding dress and this girl’s trip to Hawaii…

It’s two a.m. before I put down my phone and go to sleep. Maybe in another post I’ll write about all of the amazing things sleep has given me in life, and how none of us are as grateful as we should be for sleeping because I woke up the next morning with two words on repeat in my brain, my 25-year-old mantra:

FUCK THAT.

If you’re offended by harsh language then just know that I don’t mean it offensively and I don’t think it should be taken that way. I think we all need a little more fuck that in our lives, but if you want to call it something else that’s fine by me.

Fuck that means closing the door on thoughts, actions, and events that don’t grow me. There are life lessons I still need to learn but that doesn’t mean I should keep doing something that never makes me any happier in the hopes that what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger. Fuck that means exploring what I want and climbing forward, learning from the people around me who are doing things differently and making decisions about what lessons I want to be teaching people. Her abs ARE amazing and wanting abs I don’t have (yet) doesn’t make me a lesser person, it only makes me a lesser person if I choose to feel bad about it instead of getting to work.

To shamelessly steal from Crossfit coach Ben Bergeron, I’m shaping my life around my ability to do five things: live, love, learn, lead, and leave a legacy. Bergeron also talks at length about tracking improvements and working tirelessly towards a goal daily, not just when you feel like it.

So to track my improvement, I made myself a Quarter Life Crisis List.

NOTE: I get it haters, lots of things on my list are contradictory (this girl thinks she’s gonna pay off her debt AND travel to a new country? Pssh.) If you’re here to judge, please refer back to my aforementioned mantra (it’s fuck that, if you missed it). This list was curated at around one a.m. the next night, so I’m not bound to it. I want it to adapt and I hope I’ve made it rigorous enough that all 25 items aren’t crossed off by 26. Instead, at 26 I’ll be able to look back at what I started, look at what I have left, and then add one more to the list. And again at 27. And again and again and again.

Take a look at what I’ve got so far and if you have suggestions, that’s what the comment box is for. Just like I stole from Bergeron you’re welcome to steal from me, and I’m happy to steal from you! So leave your own Quarter Life Crisis list in a comments, and let’s get after it.

Plain Plain Casey Jane’s Quarter Life Crisis List:

1. Compete in a Crossfit competition
2. Back squat 200 lbs.
3. Earn a new fitness certification (300 hour yoga cert? Crossfit L1?)
4. Learn to cook
5. Drink enough water each day
6. Talk to my family more
7. Make an effort to meet new people
8. Develop a meditation practice
9. Visit a new country
10. Take a solo trip to a state I’ve never been to
11. Write the first draft of a novel
12. Learn Spanish
13. Read 50 books
14. Listen to a podcast a day
15. Establish a relationship with a mentor
16. Help fund 100 Kiva loans to Oklahoma small businesses
17. Get $10k in my savings account
18. Pay off my debt
19. Try an extreme sport (snowboarding? BMX?)
20. Get a tattoo
21. Make blog posts AT LEAST once a month
22. Produce less waste and create habits for sustainability
23. Engage in political activism
24. Train my dog to do literally anything
25. Write letters of gratitude to the people who influence me