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Why You Should Experience A Midlife Crisis… Even If You’re Young
The underestimated tool for personal growth
The term midlife crisis conjures up images of often comical and sometimes pitiful attempts to reclaim a youth long since vanished. I was fifteen when I first encountered someone in the throes of this fall from grace.
He was in his mid-40s. He wore spikey hair, held together by globs of gel, creating the perception of brown ice crystals growing from his head. He sported the same dungaree jacket I wore and a pair of Air Jordan sneakers — an absurd mash-up of 80s styles. His daughter always trailed five feet behind him, an apparent attempt to distance herself from the embarrassment.
I was on vacation with my family. We were staying in the same hotel as this troubled man and his daughter. My parents told me, “don’t stare. He’s having a midlife crisis.”
I may have heard the term before then, but I don’t think I realized what it meant until I connected it with that guy.
For the next thirty years, the term midlife crisis held a derogatory meaning for me, as it does for most folks. It makes sense given my first experience and the cultural connotations of the term.
But my opinion changed.
