5 Signs of a Quarter Life Crisis

You’re twenties are supposed to be about milestones; but most likely the years between 23 and 28 are hallmarked, instead, by tombstones of dead dreams and dwindling youthful optimism. I give you the quarter life crisis. I can’t take credit for coining the idiom, however, my colloquial use of the phrase has triggered enough odd looks and inquisitions that it’s time to outline the symptoms of a generation that may unknowingly suffer from this periodic fate.

#1. Horoscope Hopeful

You’re career has bounded from entry level to mid-level management or sales positions, hardly fulfilling the professional aspirations that carried you through college. In your desperation to answer life’s questions about the next step, romantically or in your career, you develop an increasing interest in your zodiac sign. The occasional peak of your horoscope, in an outdated magazine, while waiting in a doctor’s office has now embarrassingly turned into frequent click through while you scan the news on msn.com.

#2. Infomercial Seduction

In your delusion that there is something amazing that will come along and turn your mundane routine around, you start to buy into advertised late night infomercials. You believe a gadget exists that will make your life unimaginably simple and happier. So, you buy a Steam Mate Dryer Ball and realize again, it’s a complete shame and punish yourself for the wasted expense and reluctantly drag yourself to the laundry mat and pay $1.50 a shirt to get your clothes cleaned so you can look presentable at a job you hate just like everyone else in America.

#3. Netflix Marathon

You feel unaccomplished. You feel as if you haven’t finished anything other than a case of beer in over a year. So, to buttress your need for achievement you sign up for Netflix and begin watching every season of Breaking Bad. It’s what carries your through the day. Will Heisenberg’s true identity finally be revealed? You have something to come home to and something to look forward to after you relish in the accomplishment of countless hours spent completing all five seasons.

#4. Fashion forward

You’re older and wiser and you don’t fit into that pair of jeans from college anymore. You are forced to venture into department stores and buy respectable clothes. Realizing you’re past considering the ridicule you will receive for wearing something trendy you swallow the pride that’s been keeping you out of H&M for years and buy yourself a scarf. You buy a scarf because, what does a scarf say about someone? Nothing. It’s scarf and it keeps your neck warm, but depending on the accompanying outfit and climate it may say a lot about you. But you start with a scarf, swearing this purchase path won’t lead to fitted jeans.

#5. Hobby Lobby

No one is impressed with your high school sports stories anymore, and the last time you made something involved macaroni art so you go on Groupon and pick a hobby. You try something new, maybe horseback riding, that boot camp fitness class, or sailing. You leave feeling completely motivated or even more inadequate. Which leads to the creation of the trademark moment of a quarter life crisis… you make a bucket list.

An NFL sideline

REDSKINS

        Before the sun fully rises at 6 a.m., a team of four loads into a van headed to Philadelphia. Their destination is Lincoln Financial Field. The passengers are preparing for the Sunday match-up as the Washington Redskins take on the Philadelphia Eagles. The mood is jovial for the first stretch of the more than two-hour drive until an hour outside of the stadium.

Conversations dull as mental plans for executing the perfect angle and position on the field are calculated. Tweets are tracked to follow fan anticipation of the start of rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III, returning from his first injury.

The van, now quiet with focused anticipation, isn’t full of athletes. Instead, sports photographers ready to capture another game in football history.

At this moment, Air Force Staff Sgt. Daniel DeCook considers how most others are starting a typical Sunday morning routine of watching cartoons and menial house work in preparation for the work week ahead.

 “And while they’re doing that, I’m standing on an NFL sideline,” said DeCook, a photojournalism instructor at the Defense Information School here.

DeCook hangs up his camouflaged airman battle uniform to spend the day capturing professional athletes in their burgundy and gold uniforms. 

As an instructor and photo intern for The Washington Post, covering the Washington Redskins season, DeCook is able to combine the passion he has for sports and his students.

“It’s very easy to relate sports to what my students are going to be doing in the military,” said DeCook. The benefit of learning how things are done “on the outside” is his way of staying current and bringing credibility to his lectures at DINFOS.

“I learned a lot about how to communicate with photos, and this season has absolutely made me a better instructor,” said DeCook, who started his first full season interning this year.

For most people who don’t get to shoot photography from the sidelines at an NFL game, the experience can only be described as

awesome, said DeCook. An experience that colleague Staff Sgt. Daniel J. Love, a photojournalism instructor at DINFOS and rival Seattle Seahawks fan, can even appreciate, admitting he wouldn’t have minded being there when “the Seahawks destroyed the Redskins.”

Love is witness to DeCook’s weekend gig, following his Facebook pictures from the sideline.

“It’s always him next to some football player. He’s got his hat on backward, looking all serious with a Nikon in his face,” said Love.

An NFL sideline is a maze of photographers and TV cameras competing for the same shot while dodging frantic coaches and cheerleaders, said DeCook.

The opportunity to join the community of professional sports photographers allows for not only comradery but personal growth.

“I sat there right next to the AP guys and was able to talk to their photo editors and see what they’re looking for,” said DeCook.

For the team of four who made the trip to Philadelphia together  it’s more than just getting the action shots.

“It’s really about moments,” said DeCook, a phrase that his students are very familiar with.

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Baltimore Harbor

Jan. 17, 2013 Nikon D200- Lens 24.0-85.0 mm f/2.8 ISO160

Shutter Speed and Flashes of Love

I was handed a Nikon D200 and told, “shoot things.” This wasn’t the first time I was issued a piece of military equipment and instructed to do so.  While my first experience may have been with an M16, the principles of photography are roughly the same. Sight picture, steady aim, trigger squeeze.

Above is the first picture I took as a photojournalist. Knowing nothing about aperture, shutter speed, ISO, or focus; the picture isn’t awful. The picture does little to capture anything more than the moment my love and hatred of photography began.  

What I have learned over the weeks since owning my camera is far more about love than any photographic skill.

Photography is about capturing moments. If you’re not ready to pull the trigger that moment can be gone.  Parallel that to the mistiming that riddles the everyday relationship. He took a job in Dallas, or I should have kissed her after dinner. Whatever given terminable hesitation that caused you to miss what might have been a perfect shot.

However regrettably the moment has passed. The situation cannot be recreated. From a photo point of view it would be uncouth to attempt to recreate the action. Its imitation would come at the risk a taking a dreaded posed image.

Similarly, you cannot go back in time.  He has left on the plane, and she is already on the couch in her pajamas watching Sex and the City re-runs.

It isn’t over. You pick up your camera, you keep shooting and you get better. You buy a ticket to Dallas, and invite her on a second date.

The beauty of life is that we create the moments, and they continue to happen every day continuously. You, however, just have to determine that you won’t give up. That your miscalculated shutter speed and over exposure causing your flash to go off in a two star generals face long delayed after the surge of appropriately timed clicks goes off around you, doesn’t foil your motivation.

Miscalculations should be your encouragement. Every day I refocus, watch my speed, and wait for my moment- in love and photography.

A hoppy hobby

BEER

A single beverage containing all seven minerals essential for life on earth, it has been theorized, contributed to the founding principles of agricultural, mathematics and the written language.  The happy accident of its creation occurred thousands of years ago.

The liquid contents of a stone bowl containing grains filled with water from a warm rain, in combination with yeast that is present everywhere, may be the first instance of the drink’s origin. 

“And somebody said ‘this probably won’t kill me,’ drank it, got a little buzz, and said, ‘This is fantastic. We need to do more of this,’” said Navy Chief Petty Officer Kurt Anderson, a public affairs instructor at the Defense Information School here.

That stone bowl contained, in its infancy, the recipe for the world’s first beer.

Several instructors at DINFOS enjoy creating their own beer recipes as dubbed home brewers. The beer makers here range from the recreational brewer to an award-winning beer aficionado.

The small beer-making community started when Anderson heard people were interested. After learning how easy the process is, fellow instructors dove right in, said Anderson.

“I make beer in a turkey fryer and ferment it in a bucket,” said Anderson

 So, for whoever thinks it’s challenging, think again, said Anderson.

Anderson has been brewing for nearly five years after developing a taste for better beer while living overseas in Italy and Belgium. Inspired by Monks who have been doing it in open vats for thousands of years, he came up with the idea to start making his own.

“Beer is made from extracting fermentable sugars from malted grain. You can use specialty grains for different flavors and hops and add other to adjuncts to it — fruits or whatever it is you want,” said Anderson.

        The process is similar for all beers. However, the craftsmanship varies from brewer to brewer.

For Staff Sgt. Nathan W. Hutchison, a photojournalism instructor at DINFOS, it’s just a fun process, he said. He is more of a throw-it-together type of guy.

“There are good beers out there. I don’t buy them. I just like cooking and creating,” said Hutchison.

The process of making beer is a science Hutchison’s wife, a biologist, can appreciate more than him. He said his excitement simply comes from seeing the first bubbles in a bottle and knowing he is making something.

It is a process of waiting and patience, he said.  Eagerness to taste a new beer sometimes gets the best of him however. Hutchison admits prematurely opening a bottle of his newest banana bread brew before it reached the ideal carbonation.

The banana bread beer marks his fifth batch since he started home brewing seven months ago. Banana pepper/cantaloupe and honey pecan beer are some of the unusual flavors he has created so far.

Finding inspiration for a new flavor beer can come from anywhere — imitating a favorite beer or a using seasonal flavor.

“When you have the ability to make your own beer, you really don’t have a whole lot of constraints,” said Anderson.

Anderson’s award winning beer named the “Tongue Lashing” contains more alcohol per volume and hop bitterness than typical for the type of beer. The recipe includes a munich malt to enhance the background and lots, and lots of hops, said Anderson.

“I enjoy a challenge to nail times and temperatures and get the best beer out of it,” said Anderson.

The challenge of executing the Tongue Lashing, an IPA-style beer includes putting fresh hops into the boil early to give its characteristic bitterness.

Whether it’s a hoppy pale ale, or a sweet stout, “most people can enjoy a beer,” said Hutchison.

The science and the craftmanship of beer making attracts the instructors at DINFOS to the hobby.

“Beer is a beverage. It’s delicious. It’s a social lubricant, and it contains all the seven minerals necessary for life on earth,” said Anderson.

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Army Spc. Devon Bistarkey