I am having a quarter-life crisis.
To be frank, it’s not so much of a crisis, it’s more like a dull headache. I basically have a muffled voice in my head yelling, “What now??” And to make it even better, it’s damn near impossible not to sound trite airing out all these thoughts and feelings. Oooh, 20-something, doing her best to navigate the maelstrom that is life after graduation… How original.
Recently, I started spending eight hours a day in a building with fluorescent lighting, decorated in the blandest oatmeal color scheme, and staring at a computer monitor, and let me tell you, it is draining. In fact, I’m pretty sure those lights are sucking all the Vitamin D from my body and changing the color of my complexion to match the walls. Good news, though: this has inspired in me a burning desire for intrigue and excitement. Every day when I wake up, I ache to discover a new place. This does not necessarily mean I want to visit a place that is geographically new to me; it could easily be a new little nook within the best city in the world conveniently located in my backyard — New York City. (That sentence works a lot better if you picture me winking at the end of it.)
Of course, I am being somewhat flippant when I call NYC the greatest city in the world. No doubt I love this place with every fiber of my being, and it’s where the majority of my happiest moments have taken place, but I’m no townie either. I need to explore the world! I’m still working on travelling across the globe, though. So I’ll settle for having the tiny, abundant adventures that await me in my immediately surrounding areas every evening and weekend. That does count as a part of the world, doesn’t it? I’ll pretend this office building holds a new experience at the turn of every corner, too. At the very least, I meet a new person every day and if Walt Whitman can contain multitudes, I’m betting most other people can, too. If discovering those multitudes isn’t an adventure all on its own, what is?
I could spend an eternity getting delightfully lost in the multitudes.
