Wishing you could live your life like a Ke$ha song? I don’t know about you, but I don’t drink “Jack” and party all night long, nor do I stay out all night like tomorrow ain’t a work day, because unfortunately, tomorrow is usually a work day (except for the glorious weekends, but you get my point). For four years in college you live every day to the limit, going out when you should be studying, experiencing things you only imagined – then you make that infamous walk across the quad and…poof you’re a grown-up. All I can say is – yea, right!

The quarterlife crisis – something I’ve experienced myself this past year, and I’m only 22  – is a concept mentioned in this article by the Daily Mail, a UK daily paper. In the article it says 20-somethings from 26 to 30 experience this feeling of uneasiness throughout those four years, but I say you experience it throughout your 20s in general.

We’re thrown out into the world with tons of college debt, maybe some credit card debt and big, no HUGE dreams – dreams for a house of our own (ask your parents, I bet they were married after college), dreams for “that” job, and dreams for a life full of wonderful experiences, vacations and memories.  What many of us find when we graduate from college is that the “it” job we wanted is more something that pays the rent, or that we can’t find a job at all or that we simply can’t figure out a way to get out of our parents’ house.

So what do we do? Do we give up? Heck no! We’re a generation of native Web users – use the tools at your hands to figure out how to save, how to make more money and how to find a job. Trying to pay off loans – use mint.com to budget your funds and determine how long it will take you to pay down loans, credit cards and how to allocate the appropriate amount to a “crazy” money fund (because after all both Jack and Jill need to play sometimes!).

We have skills that people would kill to learn  – we tweet effortlessly, share links on line as easy as cooking eggs and understand the mindset of today’s consumers, because quite frankly they’re us! Use these skills, use different freelancing websites to determine what companies, or individuals, needs your skills. These are valuable, don’t let all your hard earned Facebook experience go to waste!

We’re determined – I know, I know most in our parents generation think we’re apathetic and consumed with material things and gadgets. And yea, to some extent we are, but get involved! Fight for your rights – GMA reported today that the politicians are trying to stop us from texting and walking. Don’t like it? Get up and SHOUT!

Mid-life crises are cured by buying a new car, upgrading a spouse or getting a tattoo, quarterlife crises? These are cured by putting on your grown-up pants, taking life by the horns and making it work for you. Make your job work for you, and ultimately, make your life work for you.

Have any ideas on how to survive this? E-mail me, victoriareitano@gmail.com.

— By Victoria Reitano, 2010 Graduate of Quinnipiac University and current Editor at a magazine