My buddy Logan Lamphere and I teamed up to write The Complete Hostel Guide Book.  You can check it out by visiting www.completehostelguide.com

I’ve known Logan since preschool.  After graduating from college he has traveled to over 45 countries. Think about that! It’s pretty amazing…45 countries.

The Rapid City Journal did a nice feature story on Logan and the guide earlier this year… Thanks Crystal!

You can check out the article by clicking here:

I’m also pasting it below. Let me know what you think!

Authors urge hostel stays to cut costs

By Crystal Hohenthaner, Journal staff

Two Sturgis natives recently published an e-book in an effort to encourage “quarterlifers” to travel and to inform them about hostels.

“The Complete Hostel Guide Book” is not the first collaboration of Sturgis Brown High School graduates Logan Lamphere and Jason C. Steinle.

“Jason had previously written a book for quarterlifers — people in their late teens, 20s and 30s — advising them on careers, finance and life. I had helped him write a small travel section,” Lamphere said. “We decided to combine his experience of writing a book and helping young adults with my travel knowledge to produce a book to encourage young people to travel.”

Lamphere had been thinking about writing a book for a couple of years, and when he decided to collaborate with Steinle, he already was working on a general book about travel. After doing some research, the men found that young people were most interested in learning about hostels and decided to focus on hostels for the book.

“It makes sense because hostels offer a very affordable way to travel,” Lamphere said.

Hostels cost from $5 to $25 a night, according to Lamphere, as opposed to up to $200 dollars a night for a hotel room.

One of the greatest reasons for the difference in price between hostels and hotels is the accommodations. Lamphere said he feels the service and quality hostels provide is almost as good as a hotel. Although hostels are improving accommodations, those staying at hostels should expect to share.

“Traditionally, if you stay at a hostel, you will have to share rooms and the rooms are usually co-ed,” Lamphere said. “There are more choices nowadays. In some hostels you can find private rooms, but they cost more. Four-person rooms are the most common, but I’ve also stayed in rooms with 10 to 20 beds in them.”

Even those who shell out the extra money for private rooms will have to share and deal with a lack of extras.

“There’s no TVs, no phone and no private baths,” he said.

The style and feel of hostels varies greatly, according to Lamphere, which is one of the things he likes about them.

“Some are converted warehouses or old dorms,” he said. “One of my favorite hostels is one in Marseilles. It was an old home. It was really interesting because each room was different. I’ve even seen hostels in old barns.”

Lamphere started writing the book in April of 2006 and it took him about a year and a half to complete it. Soon after he began writing, he took a three-month backpacking trip through Morocco, Spain and France to research elements of the guidebook.

“While on the trip, I interviewed people and took photos for the book,” Lamphere said. “So, mostly the book is written from my point of view and acquired travel expertise.”

In his 31 years, Lamphere has traveled to more than 45 countries for both business and recreation.

“Summer ’95 was my first trip to Europe, and I sort of caught the travel bug,” he said.

Because the primary audience for the book is young adults, Lamphere and Steinle decided to publish “The Complete Hostel Guide Book” as an e-book

“It’s just a new format to experiment with,” Lamphere said. “My co-author had written a previous e-book for quarterlifers and had success with it.”

Steinle also has written an e-book guide for visitors of the Sturgis Rally.

“It’s a convenient format for young people,” Lamphere said. “You can save the book to a PDA and access it while traveling around.”

The book recently has been launched on a secure Web site, www.completehostelguide.com, and costs $19.95 to download. Lamphere and Steinle have reduced the price of the book in an effort to make it a little more affordable for students

“My goal wasn’t to make money, but to encourage young people to travel,” said Lamphere.

The electronic format of the book also gave Lamphere and Steinle a chance to publish in full color, include interactive chapters and utilize live links to informative Web sites.

For example, while the e-book doesn’t include listings of hostels, section 11 in the book, “Picking a Hostel,” includes Web sites that have hostel directories and a short tutorial on how to use the sites.

The e-format also allows the authors to get feedback from readers, and because the book is electronic, it is easy to re-edit it to include new information, if necessary.

Beyond information on hostels, the guidebook also includes checklists, tips on packing, information on acquiring passports and visas and ways to stay in touch with friends and family while traveling.

The book also features profiles of travelers who have stayed in hostels as well as profiles of people who work in hostels. The profiles offer perspectives from other travelers that include fun information like worst travel experience, weirdest food eaten and most/least useful travel items.

Although the book’s format and content originally were planned to encourage young people to travel, Lamphere stressed the fact that hostels are not just for youth.

“The hostel scene is changing,” he said. “Services are improving. The hostels used to have a lot of rules; now they are more flexible. And very few have any kind of age limit.”

Lamphere is considering writing another travel book and Steinle has produced an entire line of Upload Experience products available at www.uploadexperience.com.

Contact Crystal Hohenthaner at 394-8463 or crystal.hohenthaner@rapidcityjournal.com.

Sean Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens, joined Jason C. Steinle back in 2003 for this interview. Listen in as Sean discusses the key steps he’s discovered in navigating your teens and twenties.

To learn more about Sean Covey please visit www.7habits4teens.com

Like what you hear? Check out our blog www.uploadexperience.com/blog for more podcasts.

You may also like our resources located at www.uploadexperience.com and www.quarterlifesolutions.com

 First Job: 

A conversation with T. Jason Smith. After 14 years of experience in human resources Smith noticed a trend.  Recent college graduates going through their first year of work had the same questions and concerns plus they sabotaged their career with similar behaviors. 

Join us as Jason C. Steinle interviews T. Jason Smith on how to avoid these behaviors and navigate your first year of work. 

Smith is the author of Leaving Campus and Going to Work. You may also visit his website www.leavingcampus.com for more resources.

Like what you hear? Check out our blog www.quarterlifesolutions.com/blog for more podcasts.

You may also like our resources…including a more in depth interview with T. Jason Smith located at www.uploadexperience.com and www.quarterlifesolutions.com

Thank you!

I’m excited for the debut of the show ‘Quarterlife’ on NBC tonight.  Here is a great article by from the LA Times about the show and the history it made on it’s way to NBC.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/webscout/2008/02/14life.html

Here is the full story as seen in the LA Times:

 ’Quarterlife’s’ improbable third quarter

The story of “Quarterlife,” which premieres tonight on NBC, has been more about the ambitions of the show’s creators, Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick, than about the show itself. This drama about being young in a confusing world is in many ways the tale of two TV-makers being confused in a young person’s world. 

“Quarterlife” — which Mary McNamara reviews in today’s paper, and which I wrote about in November — began as a pilot for ABC way back in 2004, when YouTube was still a far-off twinkle in some nerd’s eye.  For one reason or another, “1/4life” didn’t make it to prime-time, forcing Zwick and Herskovitz — who wanted to keep their idea alive — to figure out another approach.

What they came up with sounded pretty good on paper:  an “Internet show,” complete with a main character who’s also a video blogger — and all wrapped in a real-live social network.  If that wasn’t cutting-edge television, then kiss my grits.

But despite a good deal of hype, some newfangled trimmings, and a partnership with MySpace, “Quarterlife” never quite crossed the Web’s success threshold: it didn’t go viral. The episodes on MySpace tended to hover around 100,000 views over their lifetime, with maybe another 50,000 or so each from each episode’s YouTube incarnation.  (For reference, a semi-well known YouTube blogger named KevJumba scored 450,000 views this week when he posted a video about how he broke his shin and had to “get a cast that extends up to my unmentionables.”)

The strangest turn happened when, very soon after the writers strike started, Herskovitz and Zwick sold the show to a content-strapped NBC.  “Quarterlife” had quickly come full circle — imagined as a TV show and then reimagined as an Internet show, it was now being re-reimagined as an Internet show that beat the odds to make it onto TV.

Will the show work on NBC, even though it didn’t really work online?  In a recent essay for Slate, Herskovitz waves away the question: “We’ve already won the main victory, no matter what happens.”  In this case, the main victory is not making a hit show, but getting a network TV deal that gives him “100 percent ownership and creative control.”

In the same piece, he blames the show’s Internet failure on the Internet — and the people who use it:

Even the most brilliant accomplishments on the Internet are essentially cold. Google has changed the world, but you don’t snuggle up to it. YouTube is a giant carnival, filled with freaks and mountebanks, a place to gawk and laugh and get bored. Certainly not a place to feel anything.

And because the Internet was invented by “geeks, engineers, and boys” who …

don’t naturally select for emotionality (they’d rather play video games) or exploration of inner life (they’d rather watch porn) or being in deep relationship with other people (they’d rather build Web sites till all hours), the Internet is singularly devoid of these colorations of humanity.

But, Herskovitz seems to imply, “Quarterlife” transcended the Internet’s emotional paucity.  For its fans, “the show and the Web site had come to represent an environment they couldn’t find anywhere else, that supported their dreams and addressed their fears, and in which they could recognize their truest selves.”

Times critic McNamara did not reap the same psychic benefits.  “Quarterlife,” she writes, “may be the most relentlessly traditional, nay, even nostalgic show to ever air on television.”

But at the end of the day, it’s the audience — not TV executives, not the cold-hearted Internet, and not us critics, who will write the next chapter of “Quarterlife.”  Just as it should be.

Thanks for stopping by! For more articles and quarterlife resouces please visit www.quarterlifesolutions.com and www.uploadexperience.com

Thank you!

College: 

Jason C. Steinle interviews college admissions expert Michele Hernandez 

Learn what you and your teenager need to know about the college admissions process. This interview is full of practical suggestions. Michele definately knows her subject!

Michele Hernandez- She is known as the admissions guru through her work as a consultant helping both high school students and their parents navigate their way through the college admissions process. Join us as Michele discusses how to make your college application stand-out among the thousands of others.  She is the author of A is for Admission, Acing the College Application and her latest book Don’t Worry, You’ll Get In: 100 Winning Tips for Stress-Free College Admissions.  You may also visit her website www.hernandezcollegeconsulting.com  for more resources. 

 

Here is an article that appeared in The Scotsman by Jessica Kiddle

The link to the article is here:

Spring clean your friendships or http://news.scotsman.com/ViewArticle.aspx?articleid=2618270

Spring clean your friendships

By JESSICA KIDDLE

YOU’VE known each other for more years than you care to remember. You’ve been through bad perms and other heartbreaks together. But when was the last time your friend made you laugh, or answered your urgent phone calls in the middle of the night?

If you are struggling to remember when you last felt lucky to have this person in your life, maybe it time to admit that maybe they should not be there any more.

Life coach Judy Jones, co-author of Downshifting: the Guide to Happier, Simpler Living insists that spring cleaning our friendships is essential to our emotional health.

“You should remember that the joys of de-cluttering are not restricted to your house or your wardrobe, but are relevant to your relationships as well,” she says.

“Friendship shouldn’t be an effort, but a joy, and sometimes we forget that. If you find your friends are not nourishing and sustaining you through life, then they are not true friends, but toxic friends.”

Toxic friends are a negative force in our lives. But what can be done about them?

“You can’t simply sack your friend,” says Jones. But if we believe our lives would be better without them, she says, we should make it plain we are moving on.

If you have a friend whose negativity is getting you down try putting some distance between you and them, speaking less on the phone, busying yourself in other activities and, more importantly, with other friends.

“Stress how much you are enjoying your life at the moment and how busy you are,” says Jones. “Gently let them down by showing that you are happy without them.”

But how do you spot the people in your life without whom you would be better off? We asked relationship experts to help us identify six kinds of friends to be wary of.

THE UNCONSTRUCTIVE FRIEND

It may be a consciously sly criticism about the way you look or an inadvertent insult which detracts from your good mood, but this friend will always dampen your spirits.

Damian Barr, author of Get it Together, the “quarterlife crisis” survival guide, says this behaviour is often down to jealousy or unhappiness on your so-called friend’s part: “This person believes there is only a limited amount of success or happiness in the world. Therefore, if you’re happy or successful it is somehow at their expense and they don’t like it. You’re stealing the joy. So they delight in putting you down.

“When you are on the up, instead of celebrating with you they say things like: ‘enjoy it while it lasts’. These are sour words from a sour friend. Dump them.”

THE DAME EDNA AND MADGE FRIEND

When Dame Edna Everage took centre stage, she never allowed her friend Madge to be anything more than an unattractive sidekick. If you are constantly forced to play Madge to your Dame Edna, it is time to speak up and step out from their shadow.

“Ask yourself: ‘are you a friend or an accessory? A woman or a handbag?’,” says Barr. “We all like to look good in company. But being fabulous doesn’t need to be at your expense. They dislike the fact that you both have the potential to be charming and dazzling, so like to hold court. Only the insecure need someone dull by their side to feel and look great. But it is your responsibility to shine in your own right.”

THE DEPRESSING FRIEND

You are not a human crutch to support your friend. It is nice to feel needed and wanted in a crisis, but when your friend constantly relies on you for help it can get you down. “Listening to endless tales of woe can be very wearing,” says Jones. “You can become so infected with their negativity that it will drag you down.”

Jones believes these people are perpetual pessimists who don’t want to be cheered up - so invest your positive energy in someone else.

“If you lean on something for too long the prop collapses, so you have to make sure you are not that prop. Nothing you say will perk them up so don’t waste your time,” she says.

THE USER

If your friend seems more interested in who you know and what you do for a living than your qualities as a friend, alarm bells should ring.

If they are just interested in being your “plus one” at parties but are nowhere to be seen when you want a quiet night in to talk over your problems, make a conscious decision not to be part of their social climbing agenda.

“There’s such a thing as friendship karma and what goes around should come around,” says Barr. “On some level all friendships, especially those formed in the office, are transactional. They can be worthwhile if you are both helping each other at work. But you need beware that people are unscrupulous and will use you.

“If you are constantly putting in (and giving out contacts, money and time) and getting nothing back, then it is not a fair transaction. Be pragmatic - if you can’t make the relationship mutually beneficial, then what’s the point?”

Outside work, Barr insists, there should be no room for the “I’ll scratch your back if you’ll scratch mine” philosophy: “I think this kind of relationship can be very undermining - there is nothing worse than the feeling of being used because you also feel stupid because you didn’t see it coming. Save your resources for friends who deserve them.”

THE UNRELIABLE FRIEND

“If your friend has left you standing in the bar alone too many times, then maybe stop meeting them and see how they like being stood up,” advises Barr. “A lack of commitment from a friend is so insulting because it is obvious they are waiting for something or someone better to come along.”

Yes, friendships should be flexible - after all, we all get busy and occasionally have to cancel plans. But if you have had more excuses for being abandoned at the last minute than you have enjoyed times with your pal, get rid of them.

“Friendship needs commitment and effort,” Barr says. “This includes turning up to things and being there for others. If you can’t rely on someone meeting you for a drink you can’t rely on them in a crisis, so spare yourself now.”

THE DRAMA QUEEN

Does she call you up in floods of tears because she went out with a guy once and he didn’t call again? Does she ruin your Friday nights in the pub with her angst-ridden insecurities about how she performed at work that week? Does she cause a scene if someone spills a drop of white wine on her new dress? She is a drama queen - she will never have time for you or your concerns.

A friend with a “me, me, me” mindset will neither realise they know very little about your life, and nor will they care.

“You don’t need a friend who thinks that the world revolves around them,” says Jones. “A good relationship is about balance and give-and-take. But it is highly likely that your self-obsessed friend wants it to be a one-way street, which is not healthy because you are not getting the attention you need. If you don’t get it, you move on and find a friend who thinks you are important.”

 The full article contains 1268 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.

Last Updated: 13 April 2005 6:36 PM

Thanks for stopping by!  For additional articles please visit www.quarterlifesolutions.com/blog and podcasts visit www.uploadexperience.com/blog

You may also like the resources and products available at www.quarterlifesolutions.com and www.uploadexperience.com

 

 This article first appeared in the globeandmail.com and was written by Judith Timson

Here is the link to the article:

Quarterlife crisis: angst for a new generation

Here is the first part of the article:

Quarterlife crisis: angst for a new generation

Judith Timson

 

As if adolescent angst and midlife crisis were not enough, a new crisis of self is gaining recognition and legitimacy. Somewhere between that tumultuous time when we first ask ourselves the question “Who am I?” and the time when we look up and say, often with shock, “So that’s who I’ve become” comes the “quarterlife crisis.”

The full text of this article has 1312 words.

Thanks for stopping by!  For additional articles please visit www.quarterlifesolutions.com/blog and podcasts visit www.uploadexperience.com/blog

You may also like the resources and products available at www.quarterlifesolutions.com and www.uploadexperience.com

Here is an article by Winnie Choa in The Cavalier Daily at The University of Virgina. 

The link to the article is:

Getting out alive at 25   or http://www.cavalierdaily.com/CVArticle.asp?ID=23074&pid=1284

 Getting out alive at 25

As graduation approaches, fourth years are plagued by the same questions that dominate the thoughts of twentysomethings all over the country: What do I do after college? Do I want to focus on a career or family first? Should I do something I love or something that will make me money? And perhaps most importantly, what do I do with my life?

Fourth-year College student Katy Shrum is questioning what her plans for after graduation are.

“All of a sudden, I felt old,” Shrum said. “My life flashed before me and I had no idea what my career options were.”

This phenomenon, commonly known as the quarterlife crisis, is the subject of Jason Steinle’s new book, “Upload Experience: Quarterlife Solutions for Teens and Twentysomethings.”

The quarterlife crisis, Steinle explains, is a stage people in their teens and twenties go through as they leave the stability and sanctuary of the home to enter the real world. Without the structure of college life, many students are forced to face the unpredictability of life beyond the classroom. A vast majority try to recreate the controlled foundation of their college lives by planning every step of their future. Promotion by 25, married by 27, first child by 30.

Shrum is all too familiar with the quarterlife crisis, having experienced one earlier this year when applying to graduate school.

“When you get to a point where you’re heading out on your own, there are people who are getting married and people are expecting that, expecting you to have a plan for the rest of your life,” she said. “Officially you’re out of your teenage years. You realize you have to be responsible but you’re not and it’s scary.”

The problem with putting life on a calendar to stay on track with career goals and financial aims is the sheer unpredictability of the real world. Statistics support Steinle’s claim that college graduates do not have their lives together and, in fact, don’t even know where to begin.

Pop quiz. Which of the following is true?

a)Polls show 50 to 95 percent of Americans are unsatisfied in their current jobs.

b)The average college graduate has more than eight jobs from the age of 22 to the age of 32.

c)Divorce rates are highest for couples married in their teens and early twenties.

d)Drug and alcohol abuse is highest for teens and twenty-year-olds.

e)All of the above.

The correct answer is E, a point Jason Steinle focuses heavily on in his book. According to Steinle, many of the questions quarterlifers find themselves conflicted about can be solved through a process known as “upload experiencing,” or using the life skills and knowledge of another person and applying them to one’s own life. “Upload experiencing” is not the same as living vicariously through another person, but rather it’s a way of connecting to somebody else’s experiences and using them to make life decisions.

Steinle uses “The Matrix” as an analogy to explain “upload experience.” In the movie, the main character, Neo, has the knowledge of martial arts uploaded into his mind, which he then uses in his own experiences. Steinle adapts this science fiction concept to explain his research on the quarterlife crisis.

“The ultimate ‘central center’ to upload information into is our body, mind, spirit,” said the 28-year-old author, who is himself a quarterlifer. “In my opinion this is how all true learning and growth occurs.”

Steinle helped found the Health and Harmony Chiropractic and Wellness Center in Colorado when he was 24, after earning his doctorate in chiropractic. To build community awareness, he hosted weekly health education awareness lectures (H.E.A.L. talks). One Wednesday evening, a local radio show host was a member of his audience and invited Steinle to be a guest on his show, which led to an opportunity for Steinle to host his own show. After two years of working with radio, Steinle was given a chance to appear on television.

Despite his success, Steinle said he was still asking himself what he wanted out of life and what he wanted to do with his career. The questions led him to more questions, specifically interviews with other quarterlifers, to find out their experiences and how closely those mimicked his own. Steinle spent four years asking people about their experiences and interviewing quarterlifers to try to understand what caused the phenomenon and what could be done to overcome it.

A constant theme he found in the interviews was the utter focus individuals had on finding the perfect job, the perfect relationship, the perfect children, and knowing when and how to reach their life goals. He said he observes many post-college graduates believe they have only one chance at success, and if they miss one opportunity, then their life plans have been foiled and ruined. In turn, this places a tremendous amount of stress on the individual to get everything right.

The typical quarterlifer might say: “I have to get this internship so I can get the right job. I need the right job so I can make the right connections and be promoted. Once I’m promoted, I can be successful and focus on my family.”

This is the exact type of thinking Steinle claims is the cause of the quarterlife crisis. His research also involved interviews with men and women as old as their 60s, which revealed a distinction that he uses as evidence of his theory.

“The truth is as I’ve interviewed people in their 40s, 50s and 60s plus, they are facing the same questions as the over 300 quarterlifers I’ve interviewed,” Steinle said. “The difference is that older generations are more comfortable with the uncertainty of not knowing what the next step will be.”

He emphasizes that the pressure quarterlifers place on themselves to get it right the first time is the very thing his book is trying to address.

In “Upload Experience,” each of the thirty chapters take on one of the thirty questions that Steinle theorizes quarterlifers are in crisis over. With questions ranging from “Is life fair?” to “Where should I live?” Steinle offers case studies and anecdotes to emphasize his points.

In “Am I with the right one?” he offers an example of a man who meets his wife only when he’s not looking for her, especially after a number of other relationships.

In “How can I overcome the feeling of being stuck?” he presents the story of a woman who takes it upon herself to try new things and engage in activities that interest her, and the opportunities that inevitably follow.

To Steinle, the quarterlife crisis is just another stage in life that an individual can remain in for months or years, depending on the attitude he takes. “Upload Experience” is Steinle’s effort to share the research and knowledge he’s gathered over the past few years to ease the transition from college into the real world, and to relieve some of the pressure teens and twentysomethings may feel to always making the right decision.

Specifically for college graduates, Steinle offers four words of advice:

1. What is the worst that can happen?

2. What is the best that can happen?

3. What is most likely to happen?

4. Am I willing to live with the worst in order to have a shot at the best?

Thanks for stopping by!  For additional articles please visit www.quarterlifesolutions.com/blog You may also like the resources and products available at www.quarterlifesolutions.com and www.uploadexperience.com

Here is an article by Jocelyn Jones that appeared in The Scroll at Brigham Young Univeristy Jocelyn Jones Scroll Staff April 5, 2005

Students in their late teens, twenties or early thirties are bombarded with questions and decisions like: What should I pick as a major?

Jason Steinle’s book, UPLOAD EXPERIENCE: Quarterlife Solutions for Teens and Twentysomethings, offers decision advice for “quarterlifers”

The term “upload experience” means, “to transfer the life skills of another person into your own life,” Steinle said.

Steinle hosts a radio and television show in

Colorado geared towards “quarterlifers.” He has taken special interest in asking older generations what they know now that they wish they had known earlier in life.

“People would tell me things they didn’t learn in school, but that they learned in the school of hard knocks,” Steinle said.

He has spent the past three and a half years compiling this counsel and guidance into his new book.

Steinle shared the key ingredient successful people in all walks of life have in common.

“They have a motivational source, whether it is a book, a movie, a song, etc. They have something they can refer to,” he said.

One dilemma that Steinle addresses in his book is procrastination.

“The key to quit procrastination is to link activities in your life to what you think your purpose is,” he said.

“The one thing that I got out of this whole process is that right now we have a lot of uncertainty and worry.

“The questions that we’re facing right now are questions that we’re going to face for the rest of our lives,” he said. “The difference in older people asking those questions is that they have learned to live with uncertainty.

“The majority of people I talk to say that one of the most exciting times in life is the quarterlife … and you don’t need to stress. They wish they would have enjoyed it and appreciated it more and not worried so much. Everything works out,” Steinle said.

UPLOAD EXPERIENCE: Quarterlife Solutions for Teens and Twentysomethings will be officially released May 5, but is currently available through www.amazon.com or www.uploadexperience.com.

The book contains about 100 profiles and “you see what other people are worried about. The book is very interactive but it is also something you could just pick up and read for 5 minutes,” Steinle said.

For more information about the book or about Jason Steinle visit www.uploadexperience.com.

The

Average

College Student

The student body is diverse, but trends show similarities.
students will drop out of
school by their second year.
• 26 percent of people age 25
and over have completed four
years or more of college in
the

United States.
• More than 1,100 college
students commit suicide each
year.
• 30 percent of college
students identified themselves
as suffering from an anxiety
disorder or depression.

Sources:

U.S. Census Beureau,
2003

American College Health
Association survey

Like what you hear? Check out our blog www.quarterlifesolutions.com/blog for more podcasts.You may also like our resources…including a more in depth interview with T. Jason Smith located at www.uploadexperience.com and www.quarterlifesolutions.com

Here is an article by Tristan Vawters that appeared in The Shorthorn at the University of Texas.

UNIVERSITY OF

TEXAS AT

ARLINGTONApril 1, 2005

Uncertain Times
Enlightenment doesn’t come easily to students

By Tristan Vawters
The Shorthorn Assistant News Editor

Angelela Roberts is a little anxious.

The biology sophomore is stressed because she’s not sure if she wants to continue pursuing her major.

“My major is biology right now, but really I don’t want to do it,” she said. “I want to change it, but I don’t know what I want to change it to.”

Roberts has put some pressure on herself because of her role in her family.

“I don’t get pressure from my parents or anyone, but I’m the oldest, and I have to set an example,” she said. “It’s a heavy burden.”

According to Colorado-based author Jason Steinle, who recently wrote Uploading Experience, Roberts is not alone. Steinle has spent the past four years researching how students can cope with pressure and eventually find their niche in life. The book states how students of all ages deal with life during and after college.

“The truth is, as I’ve interviewed people in their 40s, 50s and 60s plus, they are facing the same questions as students are, such as, ‘Who am I?’ ‘What is my purpose?’ ‘Where do I find Mr. or Ms. Right?’ ” he said. “The difference is that older generations are more comfortable with the uncertainty of not knowing what the next step will be.”

Steinle believes that students ages 18 through 25, or “quarterlifers,” have many choices that cause them to be distressed.

“As quarterlifers, we are faced with so many decisions that we get overwhelmed,” he said. “We don’t have a firm foundation established, and the chaos creates fear and anxiety. We want reassurance and something that stays constant in the midst of all change.”

Shirley Binder, special assistant to the graduate affairs dean, said that it may be difficult for students to get a job, but there are more options available for young people now.

“When I was that age, the only careers open to women were being a secretary, teacher or marriage,” she said.

Binder thinks that being in college and getting ready to graduate can be the most exciting part of your life, but it can be the scariest.

“It’s scary, but I’ve been through a lot of scary times in my life, but that’s living,” she said. “My advice for students is to be willing to take on something challenging when you’re not sure you’re ready for it. Try to learn and do things as fast as you can.”

Like what you hear? Check out our blog www.quarterlifesolutions.com/blog for more podcasts.You may also like our resources…including a more in depth interview with T. Jason Smith located at www.uploadexperience.com and www.quarterlifesolutions.com