Five[Six] Questions for Twenty-Somethings Considering an Existential Crisis (and panic about)

Prepare for an existential crisis (or don't).  Realistically- I am the only one reading[writing] this that is having an existential crisis but that won't stop me from [over]sharing, anyway.  

I am a 27 year-old Political Science undergraduate student at UW-Madison.  Last week I was the Youth Director at 100,000+ square foot sporting facility.  After five years in the working world I am going back to school to finish my undergraduate degree and, perhaps, more.  It's a frightening, drastic change that wasn't easy to settle on.

In the past five years I have been the aquatic's director at a private pool, director of a sports camp, a sales manager for a trade publication, an inside sales rep for a telecom company, and the  Youth Director at a the aforementioned sports facility.  About six months ago I started looking back at how I had grown and what I had accomplished personally.  The list was thin.  

I made this radical change after I answered questions I hadn't even asked.  Like Jeopardy, my answers came first.   I framed these questions around the answers that I arrived at:

1) Where am I (in relation to the ones that I care about)?  Further and farther away.  I've committed more time to fruitless and dead-end tasks and jobs than I have to the friends and family that deserve my time and attention.

2) Where am I going?  Nowhere- at least I wasn't.  I've made a few small strides forward including filling in a bit of my financial hole that I dug during 'part one' of my undergrad.  Furthering my career? I was just... working. I was a cog repeatedly turning.  A cog that was part of a machine that wasn't going anywhere.

3) What am I doing (or not doing)?  I was working, obviously, but more accurately distracting myself.  When I wasn't working I was actively trying to distract myself from work or, if I was unable to distract myself I was stressing about work.  I was not doing the things that make me happy

4) What do I look like (compared to my own standards)?  I look stressed, tired, and frankly, out of shape.  I thought that my work would help me make time for the things that I enjoy and allow me to improve myself. 

5) How do I feel?  Out of place.  Out of sorts.  I am (or was) a bubbly, social, energetic person.  Looking back over the past several years I have become removed from my friends and family and from myself.  I have not been myself for some time.  It is a sobering thought.

Panic!  I did.  It's natural.  Just... take a step back and look at the big picture.  Realizing that you are unhappy or moving toward unhappiness is unsettling.  The first thing I did was look for new jobs.  Any job.  Anywhere!  This was not the larger issue and not the correct course of action (for me).  Don't act just yet.  

[6] What actually needs to change?  The answer to this question is the hardest.  It could be your job, relationship, location, lifestyle, beliefs, whatever.  For me it was my career and education.  This was not immediately obvious for me and it likely won't be for you.  Does it need to be an earth-shaking, life-changing, existential epiphany?? No.  No it does not.  Is there something you should change? That's up to you but don't let yourself get in the way.

I'm scared.  You will be, too, if you decide to change something worthwhile. Even if you decide to make an adjustment or do something different with your life, career, etc- it is always scary.  Do it, anyway.  Do it because you can.  Do it despite yourself or your family or your ex or whatever reason you need.

"There is no greater education than one that is self-driven." - Neil deGrasse Tyson