It’s a Friday morning, well afternoon by the time I wake up, on a hot summer day. I roll out of bed wearing whatever I passed out in last night, hobble to the kitchen for a good, strong cup of coffee and sit down with my laptop to cyber-stalk all of my friends and laugh about how they absolutely detest their dreaded internships on “The Hill”. As I scroll on, laughing and relaxing, thanking God that I’m still young and free, I stumble upon a horrible post that nearly makes me spit my overly sweetened coffee out. Yet another one of my friends is engaged. I’m gonna die. My heart begins to palpitate, my palms get sweaty and my life begins to flash before my eyes. Engaged. This means there will be a wedding and weddings mean marriage and marriage means adulthood and I’m not even an adult yet, so how can my friends be adults if I’m not?! The news of my dear friend’s transition into adulthood makes me realize that I’m nowhere near ready for that and thus, I’m sent into the notorious quarter-life crisis. I’m sure you’ve experienced this too. You start to panic, and doubt your own growth and development into a “real” person. But the truth is you don't have to! Next time you’re about to fall into the premature quarter life crisis, remember these things:

1. There is no timeline for life that you must subscribe to.

Married by 28? First kid by 30? Nah, fam. Chill. I don’t even know what I want for breakfast tomorrow. You've got all the time in the world.

2. You’re not behind.

Everyone is different so while some of your friends may be off getting awesome jobs, you’re in school and that’s freaking dope too.

3. You’re someone’s role model.

Whether you realize it or not, someone is watching every move you make and aspiring to be just like you one day. Kinda scary, but that's also really cool.

4. You don’t have to have it all figured out right now.

You really do have your whole life to figure out what it is that you want.

5. Everyone around you is faking it.