I must admit that I’ve been a bit overwhelmed
lately. I’m not on the verge of a twenty-something-life-crisis per se—well, let’s
call a spade a spade—I’m on the verge of a twenty-something-life-crisis.
Correction--I am having an existential life crisis.
I can't describe fully what I'm thinking because its all so murky and foggy in my head, and part of the murkiness is the inability to articulate what I'm feeling. So, instead of describing it, I am going to replay how a typical internal dialogue sounds lately. The character of "Me" will be talking to the character of "Kerry." Which one is which you ask? My question exactly.
Me: I'm having an existential life crisis.
Kerry: What do you mean by crisis?
Me: Like, I have no idea what I am doing with my life. I have no idea what career path I should take. I don't know what anything means anymore. I'm totally lacking clarity.
Kerry: Ha! That's not a crisis--the real crisis is that you think you are having a crisis. The fact that you categorize the inability to give clear meaning to your life as a crisis is really indicative of larger issues you're facing.
Me: Like what?
Kerry: Like your unsated desire for clearcut answers on how to live your life and your all-consuming obsession with future plans. I didn't want to say anything, but you've had a lot of unnecessary freak outs lately.
Me: Oh my god, this is even a worse life crisis than I thought.
Kerry: Which brings to me another issue you have--your use of the word life to clarify crisis is totally superfluous; a crisis can only exist if we say it exists--if we're alive. So you're actually the cause of the crisis. And, while we're on it, maybe we should start examining who the "I" is that you're talking about. When you say "I" who do you mean?
Me: So, the person that I think is "I" is the creator of a crisis that doesn't even exist?
Kerry: Yeah, totally.
Me: Should that make me feel better or worse?
Kerry: I'm not really sure.
Correction--I am having an existential life crisis.
I can't describe fully what I'm thinking because its all so murky and foggy in my head, and part of the murkiness is the inability to articulate what I'm feeling. So, instead of describing it, I am going to replay how a typical internal dialogue sounds lately. The character of "Me" will be talking to the character of "Kerry." Which one is which you ask? My question exactly.
Me: I'm having an existential life crisis.
Kerry: What do you mean by crisis?
Me: Like, I have no idea what I am doing with my life. I have no idea what career path I should take. I don't know what anything means anymore. I'm totally lacking clarity.
Kerry: Ha! That's not a crisis--the real crisis is that you think you are having a crisis. The fact that you categorize the inability to give clear meaning to your life as a crisis is really indicative of larger issues you're facing.
Me: Like what?
Kerry: Like your unsated desire for clearcut answers on how to live your life and your all-consuming obsession with future plans. I didn't want to say anything, but you've had a lot of unnecessary freak outs lately.
Me: Oh my god, this is even a worse life crisis than I thought.
Kerry: Which brings to me another issue you have--your use of the word life to clarify crisis is totally superfluous; a crisis can only exist if we say it exists--if we're alive. So you're actually the cause of the crisis. And, while we're on it, maybe we should start examining who the "I" is that you're talking about. When you say "I" who do you mean?
Me: So, the person that I think is "I" is the creator of a crisis that doesn't even exist?
Kerry: Yeah, totally.
Me: Should that make me feel better or worse?
Kerry: I'm not really sure.
And that's about as far as I've gotten . . . .
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