Some More Helpings for Twentysomethings...

Here are some more entries from the book I'm currently reading--Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties. I like sharing these pieces because I think it is important to share with others things we learn/hear/pick-up-on that maybe others wouldn't have the opportunity or time to find out for themselves. So this is more for my viewing audience who is going through their 20's with me right now...

Getting older is an inescapable process. It is happening now as you read this. If we constantly fear the inevitable, we will never really live (p. 52).

One of the most challenging shifts between childhood and adulthood is the changing relationship with parents. The familial link never disappears, of course—your parents will always be your parents and you will always be their child. But in the days after graduation, a twentysomething slowly comes to realize that the playing field has leveled to a certain extent because there is no longer that “Me Adult, You Kid” separation. Well, not as much of one, anyway. To complicate the relationship even more, now that twentysomethings are out of school, they may work alongside people their parents’ age; they might go drinking with people their parents’ age; they might supervise people their parents’ age; and in some cases, they may even date people their parents’ age. As a result, twentysomethings eventually come to see their parents as—whoa—people. And that can be a weird feeling (p. 55).

The gap between childhood and adulthood grows even stranger when a recent graduate moves back home after college or graduate school. After four or more years of relative independence, moving on back to the old bedroom as an alleged adult is just plain peculiar. Suddenly, “As long as you live under my roof” becomes a factor again. At a time when a twentysomething is already struggling with leaving behind the shelter of college for the responsibilities of adulthood, living at home can spark something of a regression. The days of free pizza are left behind in favor of the days of setting the dinner table (p. 56-57).


Robbins & Wilner. (2001). Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties. New York, NY: Penguin Putnam, Inc.