The Side Quest

Did anyone else not realize this was a video game term?

All university graduates experience a version of the same quarter life crisis.

For students, time not spent studying or socializing is often devoted to recruiting or racking up resume-worthy extracurriculars. They move through a predictable sequence of short-term goals: good grades to get into college, good grades in college to land an internship, and a return offer from that internship to secure a post-grad job. Every choice must be backed by clear purpose in order to move swiftly toward each objective.

Working adults are released from this responsibility. There is no longer a fixed path mapped out for them, and success becomes self-defined and time self-directed.

There are those who climb the corporate ladder and stay chained to their desks. Others commit to continuous self-improvement, hoping that running a marathon or social climbing will tangentially advance their careers. Some shift focus to set goals in other areas of life—getting into a relationship, losing weight, learning a new skill. Despite the lack of structure or supervision, most still believe there must be a meaningful, central reason for doing anything. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Enter the side quest.

Side quest (noun)

1. a part of a computer game that has its own aim and story but is not part of the main game.

2. an activity that is done in addition to another activity and is less important than it.

Imagine that you are a character in a video game. The main plotline is on pause, and you're given a week to pursue a side quest. What if that week turned into a month—or even a year?

The video game is your life. There’s no audience and no reward for following the main plotline without interruption. In The Defining Decade, Meg Jay introduces the idea of “identity capital”—the collection of experiences that shape who we are. I believe side quests are a powerful means of building this capital, if you give yourself permission to adventure, just for the sake of it.

You could hang in the mountains with Portuguese hippies who live off the land…

… or be a front-row extra at a concert, staring down a camera lens…

… and pretend you’re cool enough to be at fashion week, both on and off the runway.

Life doesn’t have to be one monotonous stream. It can have multiple plotlines and be full of side quests. You figure out who you are by trying things that interest you and things that scare you (things that the next version of you wouldn’t blink an eye at). After all, you are the main character. You can switch skins or worlds at any point and even exist as a different version of yourself, if only for a day.

With love,

Emma