Columnist Susan Snyder: Some sage advice for a quarter

Tuesday, June 19, 2001 | 8:28 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at snyder@vegas.com or 259-4082.

The disenchantment and fluster that strikes people in their 20s now has a name.

They're calling it "quarterlife crisis."

Oh, of course someone has written a book about it. A couple of 25-year-old women figured the best way to figure out what they were going to do when they grew up was to write about how hard it is to do.

According to a news report about the book, "Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties," it seems today's twentysomethings have a hard time adjusting to the facts that life can be unfair, work can be boring and getting a job means having to be able to actually do something.

(It doesn't have to be important. Look at this. It pays the rent.)

Now, those of us who are 20 years or more past our 20s might think this all sounds like whining. But, the authors point out, we can't possibly understand the phenomenon because the job market didn't change as rapidly for us as it does for this current genera-tion of young adults.

We, they say, "had time to figure things out."

Yeah, I had four whole days between the time I graduated from journalism school and the first day of my first reporting job to "figure things out." I only had to shove everything I owned into a 1977 Plymouth Volare named "Snaggletooth" (twisted bumper), drive across four states and move into an apartment alone. Piece o' cake.

I was indeed lucky. There was no chance of ruminating over whether I liked or hated the job. My friends Rent and Student Loan kept me focused.

The book chronicles the struggles of 100 quarterlifers who are bewildered by decisions about jobs, money and relationships. These young adults, the book attests, fell deep into the doldrums when they didn't measure up to successful peers.

I suppose it's somehow easier to face being a fiscal train wreck at 40 while your friends are sending you e-postcards from their Alaskan cruise. After all, you've had 20 years to get used to the idea that for you Alaska is baked and served in a restaurant you can afford once a year.

At least when you're 22, gravity is still a law meant to be broken and baked Alaska is something you can eat.

One of the authors said the quickest route out of the quarterlife funk is for sufferers to realize they aren't alone.

Me? I'm for personal debt and downsizing. Nothing lights a fire under the old motivation like the choice between being employed and unfulfilled or being homeless and unfulfilled. What to do, what to do?

It's not that those of us running headlong into the midlife crisis don't understand. We do. We understand when the buyouts and early retirement offers beckon, the twentysomethings will be the ones offering them to us.

We understand we will be "overqualified" for almost everything out there. And we understand that we can't go back to Mom and Dad's house to get back on our feet because the nursing home has rules about stuff like that.

Life -- quarter, mid or otherwise -- is a crisis. You get past one and move onto the next one. You're not supposed to win and walk away because it's not about the winning.

It's about the playing.

So quitcherbellyachin' and deal.