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On the web at theshmit.org.

This is NPR's Life Kit. I'm Mariel Segarra.

Are you familiar with the idea of the hero's journey?

It's a structure in stories and books.

It's about a person who goes out on a quest in search of something, usually, you know, greatness.

And along the way, they learn, discover who they are, what's important to them.

This is the foundation of so many ancient myths and

fairy tales, and modern ones too. It's Luke Skywalker in Star Wars. Simba in the Lion King. Catniss

in the Hunger Games. It's Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. Notice anything about these characters?

They're all young, and they're just starting to step out on

their own. A lot of us go on our own version of the hero's journey in our 20s and 30s. Psychotherapist

Satya Doyle Bayak calls this era our quarter life. I define quarter life as being roughly ages 20 to 40,

give or take a few years on either side.

There's this popular misconception that this time in our lives is carefree and easy.

I don't think that that's the lived experience of most people in this stage of life.

It feels very scary and disorienting, and there's a lot of high pressure both to survive and and and to supposedly also be having fun and and you know feel like the world that is often kind of crashing

around us is safe to be in. Satya says often people at this age feel unsettled, stuck at a job they hate or in a city that

doesn't feel like it fits. You feel like, wait, this is what I've been working towards.

This is what all of childhood seeks to achieve is this. There's something that doesn't feel quite right.

It doesn't feel like this adulthood that we've achieved is all

that life is supposed to be. And so there's a lot of longing for something better than this.

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