Key vocabulary

1. Don’t let negative people get in the way of your dream - if you really want it, go for it.
2. Their marriage has been in a bad way recently, and I’m worried they might divorce.
3. I have way too many problems of my own to deal with right now - I can’t promise I’ll be able to help.
4. I can’t tell you the way forward, you need to find it for yourself.
5. Her parents spoil her, and she always gets her own way.

Dialogue

1. John: You’ve all heard of a midlife crisis, but what about a quarter-life crisis? Youth counsellor Helen Fern says more young people are experiencing one. Helen, what does a quarter-life crisis look like?
2. Helen: Well it varies, John, but what we typically see is someone around 24, 25, recently graduated and usually in their first job. And things are tougher than they expected. Their finances are in a bad way with the student loan and rent increases, their jobs are often a lot less creative or enjoyable than they’d hoped for, and then of course with no children yet and no sense of career, they might be feeling quite… well, lost. So it’s a time of facing up to reality-you thought you’d have your own way with life, and now it’s not all happenging, or centainly not the way you imagined.
3. John: So there you are - you’re 25, these things are all getting in the way of your dreams - how do you get through it?
4. Helen: So, unlike mid-life crises - which tend to come from looking back on our lives - with a quarter-life crisis people are often comparing themselves, whether that’s to TV characters, or our friends, or even our own ideas about what our twenties should have been like. And so the way forward, is firstly to stop doing that, and start with your life as it is now. think about your true values - many young people want the freedom to travel, but if you’d rather focus on family and home, that’s fine too.
5. John: And then do it.
6. Helen: And do it -but start with small steps. If your goal is to see the world , you can begin by researching travel routes and saving a little money each week. But I will say, if you feel it’s time you made a big change - now’s the moment to do it. There are way too many people out there with regrets about their twenties, and they usually regret the things they didn’t do, not the things they did.