Midlife crises of childfree millennials look different than those of people who took a more traditional path.

Childfree millennials have fewer obligations to contend with as they contemplate their second acts.

Midlife is the last biological off-ramp from a childfree path, the last opportunity to change your mind.

Leading up to my 40th birthday, I didn’t anticipate a midlife crisis. I was fresh off the heels of one existential roundabout, the "to be or not to be" parenthood dilemma. Didn’t I get a pass? An exemption? Credit for time served? Hadn’t I individuated and self-actualized enough? Apparently not.

One crisis doesn't preclude you from another

My midlife crisis came about nine months after the big 4-0, as if it had to gestate like a baby. Seemingly out of nowhere, I was grappling with the realities of aging (my back hurts when I sneeze and I have high cholesterol?!). Not to mention the pesky problem of my mortality—life was likely half over (at best!). Just because I didn’t have a kid didn’t mean I was exempt from tangoing with these realities.

In pop culture and media, the midlife narrative usually focuses on parents. Their kids no longer need, want, or like having them around. They no longer recognize their romantic partner turned co-parent. They have newfound time and energy to feel and process emotions after years on autopilot. And the prognosis is usually not positive. They are stuck in a career rut in an........

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