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    Quarter Life Crisis
    Quarter Life Crisis
    Quarter Life Crisis
    Ebook127 pages23 minutes

    Quarter Life Crisis

    By Emily Brandt

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    About this ebook

    Quarter Life Crisis is a collection of poetry and prose that explores what it is like to be living in your twenties. That feeling of being on top of the world and yet so incredibly small. Feeling out of place in a world that once was so small but now feels infinitely expanding. How your childhood best friend can go from someone you see every day to a stranger who doesn't wish you a happy birthday. This book is a love letter to anyone traversing that awkward time in adulthood where you feel like you should have it all figured out, and yet nothing in the world makes sense. 

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEmily Brandt
    Release dateApr 18, 2024
    ISBN9798224346325
    Quarter Life Crisis
    Author

    Emily Brandt

    Emily has been a storyteller her entire life. From the stage to the page, sharing dreams and telling tales of adventure and love are her biggest passions. She graduated with a BFA in Musical Theatre from Millikin University and currently resides in Belgium with her husband and their dog, Suki.

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    • 5/5
      My twenties are behind me yet there is still so much I relate to in these pages. (Surprised myself by crying not once but twice.) Other parts dwell on feelings that are foreign to me and beg further contemplation and there are some lines that I read and reread and just love. Greatly appreciate the generosity of the poet and the wisdom of the publisher for making it available on Everand! So glad to have read this collection. (Loved the cover art too:))

    Book preview

    Quarter Life Crisis - Emily Brandt

    For the little girl I once was.

    Content/Trigger Warnings

    This book contains mentions of alcohol, allusions to sexual assault, depression, and anxiety. Please read at your own personal discretion.

    Leave me to my books

    They don’t ask me to change

    Only to live, one way or another

    Then

    Time has a funny way of hanging a haze

    Over memories I cling to with all my might

    A golden halo that follows you

    Blinds me to the sight

    And through the haze, I reach for you

    Your smile golden and bright

    But I know this is a trick played on me

    This dream was once a fight

    This melancholy sort of sadness visits like an old friend.

    It grips me tight and forces me to see the world through lenses that color the world so bright.

    That beautiful pang of nostalgia that begs to be witnessed.

    I’m terrified of being misunderstood

    I’d rather vomit my words out to you

    In a stream of nonsense to explain how I feel

    Than have you guess for a moment

    What thoughts are in my head

    I’m tired of being misunderstood

    When I try so hard to make you understand

    With every gesture and every word

    Please know I’m trying so hard

    Why can’t you understand?

    How does one accept

    They’re not the person they were before

    When the eyes

    In the mirror

    Are the same ones that once looked

    At Christmas lights like magic?

    February morning

    ––––––––

    I walk to class

    The chill bites my lips like a hungry wolf

    Stained red as the wine I splashed

    Onto the concrete last month

    I stop.

    My tongue reaches for snowflakes that fall

    Outstretched like arms to the sun

    Eyes closed so tight I can almost see it

    I stand again in nostalgic wonder

    I remember.

    A childhood made of snow forts and sandcastles

    Of swing sets haloed by bright orange sunsets

    That sweet tang of

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