life transition
Turning point moment
A life transition is a significant change in circumstances, identity, or role—starting college, getting married, becoming a parent, retiring, losing a spouse.
The term emphasizes that such changes require psychological adjustment, not just logistical adaptation: She's going through a difficult life transition after the divorce.
Some transitions are chosen; others arrive uninvited.
- midlife crisisExistential distress at life's halfway point
- career changeMoving to different occupation
- adulthoodState of being grown
- adoptionLegal family formation
- empty nestHome without children anymore
adolescence · spiritual awakening · marriage · retirement · widowhood · cultural assimilation · childhood · menopause · coming of age · graduation · major milestone · divorce · breakups · pregnancy · parenthood · job loss · starting over · hospice care
- personal growthlearning, enlightenment, coming-of-age, growth, knowledge
- midlifemidlife crisis, empty nest, empty nester, forties, fifties
- adulthood in literaturecoming of age, maturity, bildungsroman, self-discovery, rites of passage
- dramedydramedy, tragicomedy, seriocomedy, comedy-drama, dark comedy
life transitionstagnation
Absence of flow or progress
stability · stasis · status quo · continuity · permanence
life transitiondecline
Decrease or refuse
deterioration · stagnation · backsliding · going backwards · arrested development