Why is life so hard?

Ok so imagine this: you're five years old, you go to the zoo and you fall in love with the animals. Fast forward and you're ten years old begging your parents to take you to SeaWorld and the pet store, you're starting an "animal rescue squad" for all the lost animals in your neighborhood and you want to be a zookeeper when you grow up. Then suddenly, you're twenty years old, in college, feeling lost and you think, you know what? why can't I be a zookeeper?! That's a real thing, people do that. 

So you switch your major and start off on a new path. Seven apartments, five states, three internships, three long distance relationships, and two temporary jobs (and about fifty thousand "I don't know what i'm doing with my life" meltdowns) later you land your "dream job". 

YES! This is it! You finally made it! Yeeeeaaaaarrrrssss of (actual) blood, sweat, tears and being the bottom of the totem pole has paid off. It is your time to shine!... Until, it's not. You landed you're dream job and you're miserable. You're leaving work in tears multiple times a week, wake up every morning and spend ten minutes in bed thinking of reasons to call in and calculating your sick time left and feel more alone, in a crowd of people, than anyone else possibly could. So what do you do when you feel like life just keeps breaking your heart over and over and over again? No, seriously.... #helpme

You scroll facebook and instagram and whatever else those young kids are using these days (oh my god, I can't believe I just said that. I'm getting old.) over your bowl of ramen noodle dinner and see how happy all your "friends" are. Life seems to be working out for them just fine. They have their dream job, making a lot of money, traveling here and there, posting photos of them on vacation with their significant others every other week and you're just like WHHHYYYYYY CAN'T THIS JUST BE ME?!?!??! Why does life never work out for me?! I paid my dues, I work my ass off, I care about people, I'm a nice person... why can't life just throw me a little bone?!

To put it in perspective, yes I know life could be much worse. I could not have a job at all, or be homeless, or have cancer or something. But let me tell you, I've had my heart broken by guys before but nothing feels quite as bad as when life breaks your heart. 

I've always been that person that was like "if you don't like something about your life, change it" but how do you let go of a dream that you've been working towards for years? How do you let go of the bitterness that someone else made your dream so miserable that you want to give it up? At what point do you say to yourself "you are worth more than this, your mental and emotion health is not worth this dream"? How do you chase a new dream when this dream is your passion? Because, let me tell you, i'm struggling real hard with this. I've worked so hard for something I care about so much, I don't even know who I am without animals. I guess that's my answer though, right? 

So, I guess the real question to answer is "who are you"?

I used to think people in their twenties were adults. Now, I just feel like you have a "quarter life crisis" at least once a year but you pay your bills so you're kind of an adult. Am I right?!