what the fuck to do with my life plz

[NAD]

A) Skipped lunch today. Straight to wine for dinner.

B) Nope, I've missed y'all periodically. It was time to check in.

C) I moved my laptop next to where she is sitting on the floor organizing my old photos of ex-girlfriends. WTF?!

D) Whoops!

 

[lurch70]

congrats on the marriage ... wait till dorian finds out .. he's going to commit Harakiri.

 

[Krilons Resa]

Fuckin' NADatar

 

[NAD]

welcome to adulthood and your mid 20's ... can't speak for anyone else but I had very similar dilemmas around that time. (not that I solved any )

I went through this. I became miserable at 25 because I had a degree and was on year 6 of a good career. Textbook definition of Doing Things Right and I fucking hated my existence. The only real Life Choice I made at the time was to grow my hair out. Seven years later, it's still the correct decision. I made a massive career change at 31 and don't regret it. It never felt so good to work harder than ever before for way less money than I had grown somewhat accustomed to. My boss asked me about this shift after I had been working for him for some time, and I said "it feels good to not hate myself when I wake up in the morning" and it's completely true.

then i fucked around with going to audio engineering college and dropping out during my darkest, most depressed years. wasted a ton of saved-up/inherited money. that sure didn't go anywhere.

Do you have any good stories from this time period? If so, it was not wasted. I spent 10 months in LA trying to make it as a musician. Failed miserably, made $25 pay total. Spent more than that in gas money each rehearsal. But I'm glad I did it.

The world is so bad now. it used to be good and they are systematically destroying everything that was cool about this planet for i don't even know what reason.

Fix'd.

gotta milk this "white" thing.

White males rule the world! So why come I'm still poor?

hahahaha DRC how could I forget about that place?

Oh fuck me this is almost good enough to replace my signature.

if you want to be a sound engineer go out with a band on the road ... take the money you were to spend for a semester in schol learning it and put it towards living on the road for 3 months and working. you will LEARN MORE and make crazy connections.

i'd sooner shoot myself in the face, the music business is horrible

As opposed to the job you currently hate? You can always shoot yourself in the face at the end of the tour.

Stop listening to all this namby-pamby normal-stuff picket-fence nonsense and do something awesome:

Example (I only use this because I was just looking at some of the programs on the site to do this year, specifically the animal conservation ones):

www.travellersworldwide.com Do a few of these, start networking, than do it as a job somewhere awesome (whatever your choice is).

I don't have a car, I don't have a house, I don't have a cellphone, or anything. But, I also don't have any debt be it student loans, house loans, car loans, loans loans loans.

Live a life of adventure and fuck what your 'supposed' to do. You started that thread about selling belongings and such, just keep doing it and set out on the road. If you truly want to make a change, it's going to be daunting/scary/risky/whatever. You just have to jump man. You'll remember the exact moment you made the decision for the rest of your life as well. (Or at least for years and years, haha, I can't say if I'll remember mine when I'm an old fart, but I remember it now). Well, more like the moment when all of the things that where in your head growing up, the things you said you wanted to do and be but people told you where silly, finally make it too the front of your brain and you say 'fuck it, they are wrong, time to live'. I'm sure for each person it's a different thing, so no one can tell you what it is, but it's there.


This quote right here sums up how I attempt to live my life:



"Do not sleep under a roof. Carry no money or food. Go alone to places frightening to the common brand of men. Become a criminal of purpose. Be put in jail, and extricate yourself by your own wisdom."
- Miyamoto Musashi

So far so good.



ad·ven·tur·er
noun
1.a person who has, enjoys, or seeks adventures.
2.a seeker of fortune in daring enterprises; a soldier of fortune.


EDIT: Also WTF at this 'too old' attitude? You're never to fuckin' old man. Fuck that.

I am not saying that college is bad ... just saying that attending it RIGHT AFTER high school is a bad idea.

Do any of you honestly believe that you know for sure what you want to be when you are 17-18 y/o? ...

College is stupid. I think I'm on my 10 year anniversary as of next month. I loved my time there, but only have a piece of paper to show for it and nothing more.

When I was 17 I wanted to tour the world as a rockstar. Still do. Still won't, but whatever. :Smug:

it happens again at 40 so you got 15 years to fuck things up.

Good so I'm at the halfway mark, can't wait for this wave of semi-contentedness to reside.

Watching people who did 20 years at a company only to get laid off or have their company go under made me realize how absolutely asinine this "pick a career and be it forever" concept actually is, since there is no real certainty. If you're not happy, change it up, take a gamble and see what's out there.

I don't know who you are but I like this.

So yeah. Good thread. The only advice I have is to surround yourself ONLY with things that are worth your time. This includes people, jobs, possessions, everything. Eliminate the waste, even if it means hard choices and hurt feelings. I have a limited circle of friends, I only eat the food that I enjoy, I play music with who I want to, and go to a job that I choose. Life is not perfect, and there will always be things to distract your from the important things, but doing everything in your power to get rid of the undesired elements helps. A lot. Well, it works for me anyhow. Mostly. I also have an awesome wife and family. That doesn't pan out for everyone, but it certainly helps me.

 

[lurch70]

that accurate multi-quote thing you did is impressive. i still have no idea how to do that.

 

[NAD]

that accurate multi-quote thing you did is impressive. i still have no idea how to do that.

 

[ChaosLee]

Nad, I am the artist formerly known as Necromunchkin.

 

[dorian gray]

that quote....ahahahahahahahhaaaaahahahaaahahhaa

 

[NAD]

Nad, I am the artist formerly known as Necromunchkin.

I should have known! Because it says "formerly Necromunchkin" right there. Duh. ChaosWhisky.

 

[einride]

The former is much more likely in something like Computer Science. I primarily learned programming in my degree, and now I am a programmer, so yes, it was a good, worthwhile learning experience. Even if you already know how to code, you're still bound to learn a lot on a good degree course. [...]

hey there doom, i remember you, it's been a while

thanks for the input, that's slightly encouraging.

1. Go back to school
2. Get a job where you have to take a step back, but where you can ultimately build towards something bigger
3. Start you own business

The reality is, the things you find frustrating at 26, will make you miserable at 36 and 46. You're still young, and have plenty of time to right your course. Much like you wish someone would have impressed upon you the value of taking your late teens more seriously, now is the time to take your late twenties more seriously. Make a change, sacrifice, and get on the path you want to be on.

The only other option is, to learn to be happy with less. There have been a lot of stories in the news, especially with the downturn in the economy, about people carving out a life for themselves on very, very little money. However, I'm not sure you're that type of person. I know I'm not.

this is also a good post, thanks. you know, i am predisposed to the "be happy with less money, work less" school of thought but there is less, and then there's less.

i currently live on about $830 a month after rent is paid*, and that has to pay for food + gas + inevitable car repairs + beer + clothes + everything. i have no home insurance, nothing like that. absolutely no margins, if something goes wrong i have no money saved up to take care of it, i'm essentially fucked if, say, my car breaks down or my computer breaks down or something like that.

another example: i'm moving in with my girlfriend and we need a new couch, but a new couch would take me literally a year to save up for. i can't go on trips or vacations, i can't really have a nice dinner out with my girlfriend, i can't even reasonably have a couple of beers with my friends at a bar, because $5 or so for a beer just doesn't fly with the sort of constraints i have.

so you see what i mean when i say i need to make more money. it's not about being rich, it's about living a reasonable life with hopefully a small buffer so i don't have to feel the repercussions of buying new tires for my car for like 5 months and have to ask my boss for advances on my salary constantly (real life example right here, i had to buy new winter tires so as to not to kill myself, and it was already summer again when my economy at last got back on track from the hit i took there -- i had borrowed lots of money from my boss, from my girlfriend, from at least one friend, etc.)

and you could say "well, sell your car, eat rice and lentils, stop drinking" but i can't help but feel i should be entitled to a life with something at least approaching the same kind of material comforts almost everyone else has. i have a car worth $500 from 1988 and i still can't really afford to drive and maintain it. it is frustrating sometimes.


* keep in mind the exchange rate, too: the dollar is very weak so that is less money to me than it might sound like to you

 

[einride]

[music business sucks?] As opposed to the job you currently hate? You can always shoot yourself in the face at the end of the tour.

eh, to be fair i wouldn't say i HATE my current job. i get along with everyone, i'm pretty independent with what i do, i have my own room where i can listen to death metal on youtube while working. it's okay. it's just that 1) it pays little and 2) it's going nowhere. no personal growth, no pay increases, not even any climbing the corporate ladder. not even anything particularly impressive to put on my resume. dead end.

the music business, though, is just one of those things that i feel is pretty rotten and miserable, and working with music would make me end up hating music, and i love music and live for music. therefore: no go.

So yeah. Good thread. The only advice I have is to surround yourself ONLY with things that are worth your time. This includes people, jobs, possessions, everything. Eliminate the waste, even if it means hard choices and hurt feelings. I have a limited circle of friends, I only eat the food that I enjoy, I play music with who I want to, and go to a job that I choose. Life is not perfect, and there will always be things to distract your from the important things, but doing everything in your power to get rid of the undesired elements helps. A lot. Well, it works for me anyhow. Mostly. I also have an awesome wife and family. That doesn't pan out for everyone, but it certainly helps me.

 

[Thanatopsis123]

another example: i'm moving in with my girlfriend and we need a new couch, but a new couch would take me literally a year to save up for. i can't go on trips or vacations, i can't really have a nice dinner out with my girlfriend, i can't even reasonably have a couple of beers with my friends at a bar, because $5 or so for a beer just doesn't fly with the sort of constraints i have.

I have some distant Swedish relatives and they said that this kind of situation is the same for everybody in Sweden. Nobody has disposable income. And most American politicians love to point out the same thing about Scandinavian countries every time somebody bad mouths American inequality.

Then again my relatives said this while on a month long family vacation in America so either it was bullshit or they are somehow the exception.

 

[einride]

I have some distant Swedish relatives and they said that this kind of situation is the same for everybody in Sweden. Nobody has disposable income. And most American politicians love to point out the same thing about Scandinavian countries every time somebody bad mouths American inequality.

in my experience, this is just not true

if it has any truth to it, it is only because people with larger incomes have been conditioned to also spend more money on stupid shit -- which i guess is the definition of having disposable income, so not even this holds any water

plenty of people make plenty of money and have enough to stash some away at the end of every month

you see, i work half time (4 hours a day, more or less. lately it's been more like 6 hours a day because we have a lot to do at the moment) at a job with relatively low wages. i am definitely the exception, not the rule.

 

[Vittra]

the solution to your crisis is to kill yourself for satan

 

[MFJ]

this thread should be renamed "10,000 reasons why working on a farm will leave you crippled and poor". eh, it could be worse. the part i hate most about my job is probably the 16-20hrs of driving every week (at least i get paid for it). i gotta say, one awesome advantage of my career is barely having to pay anything towards taxes at the end of the week.

 

[lurch70]

seriously considering a 180 degree turn and changing careers ... the fun and diversity of what I am doing is really boring (read: annoying) me.

 

[einride]

i'm considering something p. drastic as well but i won't say anything until i know for sure its gonna work out

 

[KILL TULLY]

http://www.legion-recrute.com/en/

 

[einride]

nooooope

 

[NAD]

If it doesn't work out, it'll make a good story afterward.

A few years ago I joined a synth-pop band in LA to try and become famous. That didn't work out, but I get to laugh about joining a synth-pop band, just like this: