Hi there, readers!

It might be my age, or my particular echo chamber (or maybe even more likely, the posts served to me by social networks algorithms), but this week, I havent stopped hearing about one particular book: Ada Calhouns Why We Cant Sleep: Womens New Midlife Crisis.

This book, about Gen X women and the distinct struggles they face, is not just a book meant to bemoan the situation these women find themselves in (an unfair categorization Gen X has dealt with all their lives). For HuffPost senior enterprise editor Samantha Storey, talking to Calhoun coalesced so much of her own experience and coping strategies .

For her, the sense of aimlessness (usually known by its more media-friendly name, the midlife crisis) happened more than two decades ago at the age of 24, when she found herself bored with her job and dating life. Thats when, like a good Gen Xer, I made plans to be alone for the rest of my life, which looking back on now is so peak Gen X, a superb mix of cynicism and pragmatism. If I was going to be alone forever, I was going to have fun while doing it!

I went to a million author readings. Learned an instrument. Took up hiking and traveling alone. But what that did for me, and I didnt realize it until after Id been through that period, was to make me an ultra confident person. I was happy in my skin, my life. That energy, in turn, I think, made me open to more experiences. Then, all of a sudden, I was not so alone and had made a lovely community.