I Found 5 Ways to Deal With the Midlife Crisis, and They Really Work for Me
At the age of 39, I clearly realized that another year plus to my age wouldn’t change much. It seemed to be just a new number and nothing else. But a couple of weeks after my 40th birthday, it hit me.
At some point, I found myself looking in the mirror, trying to count the wrinkles on my face and new gray hairs. There weren’t that many, but there was still a slight panic growing inside. And then I thought, “No way, it’s time to do something about this!” and started looking for my own ways to cope with the new reality.
I admitted that I’m just like everyone else.Yes, I am not a great manager, I haven’t made millions, and I live in a small 2-bedroom apartment. I am an ordinary 40-year-old woman, and I am unlikely to achieve big heights in my career or make a brilliant discovery. My photo will never appear on the cover of a fashion magazine, and I will never star alongside Tom Cruise.
I also ditched the aspirations of my family and didn’t pursue a teaching career after university. Of course, at family gatherings, some of them would want to say something like, “Our daughter is an associate professor in a such and such department.” A school principal would also suit them, or a head teacher, at least. This would prove to them that they didn’t demand of me being a straight-A student at school in vain, I’d finally become the pride of the family.
And the moment I finally allowed myself not to be someone’s pride and not to try to jump over my head, I felt a huge weight off my shoulders. I finally stopped nagging myself for failures and “laziness,” which was actually ordinary fatigue.
