Life's first existential crisis

RAT RACE: IT'S A PERIOD OF INTENSE SELF-DOUBT AND ANXIETY ABOUT THE FUTURE - EXPERT

- Hein Kaiser

One minute you're young and wild, the next you're watching friends buy houses, get married, and pop out babies at a rate of knots. All this while you're still figuring out which medical aid plan won't financially ruin you.

It's the quarter-life crisis, a mid-20s realisation that adulthood is an extreme sport and you're the party trick.

For soon-to-be 26-year-old Miss Demeanour from Pretoria, and yes, the names have been changed, the crisis is a daily existential question.

"Every single day," she said. "But I prefer it that way. It's a daily reminder that there is a point to living and going through your day."

Bradley A is two years past the point but not quite over the hump. He's an architecture graduate and felt the crisis in his career choices.

"When you don't have stability, you take what's in front of you," he said. "That's how I've worked in so many different roles. He's been a sales rep, carpenter, florist and an English teacher in South Korea. Each decision was made with the hope that it would lead me somewhere, but I've also learned that detours don't always mean dead ends."

Michelle from Johannesburg took a more measured approach.

"I think a bit of surviving and a bit of living," she said.

"I've started pouring into myself and living my life based off of the faith I follow, not just saying I follow it."