We’ve all heard or witnessed a midlife crisis, you know where you catch your mom in your closet trying to fit into your jeans or when your dad goes out to buy his high school dream car 30 years later. The definition of a midlife crisis is an emotional crisis of identity and self-confidence that can occur in early middle age. I’m in the middle of a midlife crisis, (maybe a quarter life crisis). All seniors are. We are put in the position where its time for us to make our own decisions that can affect anything and everything in our life. For our whole lives we’ve been told what to do, when to do it- we literally have had to ask when to pee. But now its hands off- no more crutches to support us. Where are you going to college? What do you want to be? What is your major going to be? Amongst these questions is the formation of anxiety, and the desire to avoid it.
Graduation is coming up fast, and honestly so is the future. At the age of three maybe you wanted to be an astronaut, or a magician, maybe even a princess. But now, at 17-18 years old, none of us know what we want, so please stop asking. It is as if it’s Thanksgiving everyday, and all of you are that one annoying relative hounding us with questions that you know we don’t have an answer to. Up until now we haven’t had this freedom, and we haven’t had to make choices that can make, or ruin, our lives. The pressure is on, and you’re starting to add to it.
“It’s really a lot of pressure,” Mackenzie Hagedorn commented, “I thought senior year was supposed to be stress free and the easiest one, but it’s really been the most stressful.”
“Up till now I was always really excited for senior year. It’s bittersweet just like they said, but also nerve racking. I mean, your life is your own, so you can’t really have someone else tell you if you’re making the right choice,” Zion Downs said.