This question reminds me of when I first realized that in the grand scheme of the universe nothing we do matters in the slightest. Not even my first existential crisis either. Looking back on it, accepting the intrinsic nihilism of life is really the least stressful thing I’ve ever had send me into a depressive slump.
Organized sports.
Loved sports and playing as a kid and was exceptionally gifted at basically all of them I ever tried. Ended up loving a few and before I had a chance to understand the vast difference in joy vs. occupation playing them through college.
Looking back, I didn’t enjoy any of the school sports from jr. highschool onward. I still loved the games and playing and practicing on my own, the sport itself, but the organized “competitive” part of it was awful full of horrible adults and structures and painful situations that ate up an enormous amount of time.
I could have played recreationally for 2% of the time and still have enjoyed myself just as much and still loved the sport. The sports-industrial complex in the US brainwashed me into thinking their path was the only way to continue with my love of the sport.
This is me and music. I love playing, composing and performing. But do I want to be a musician? hell no. The industry is fucked up, abusive, ungrateful and miserable. Sure, for less than the 1% they get to be billionaire celebrities. But for the rest it is unlimited hard work and atrocious conditions without safety nets or benefits and meager pay (A cousin is a pro musician and I get to know all the ins and outs). I want to enjoy music, not work at music. I learned that on the organized swimming competition rings. Didn’t get sucked into the machine, but got to see how miserable it can be to do something you love for work, competition or for a living. Chose a lovely career that I enjoy enough to happily do it well everyday, but that is not a surrogate for my whole life, passion and personality. Still get to enjoy music and swimming as recreation and hobbies.
Plenty of things, college being the biggest. But, I’ve gotten to the point where I’m able to see benefits in just about everything I’ve done in my life.
Agreed. I’m sad I wasted time and money on a failed attempt to get a degree, but I appreciate the people I met and the experiences I had.
Listen, if you want a degree, you don’t have to do the usual route. Check out WGU - it’s competency based so basically if you can do the math test, you pass the math class. If you can write the english paper, you pass the english class. Just push through and you’ll be done, and it’s super cheap. My advisor said she had someone finish a masters in 6 months.
I spent years of my life and a ton of money on a 150 gallon salt water tank. I had a thriving coral population and a lots of cool little fish and crustaceans. The metal-halide hood alone cost $2,500. I moved houses and just couldn’t bring myself to set it back up.
Every amphetamine user reading this post: fidgets nervously in chair
School was a monumental waste of a childhood. Then unis. Now work. It all sucks.
Most papers I’ve written, especially one where I know the professor gave me a mercy C.
Sure. Two big projects at work come right to mind. Both were fucked before I started and ended up fucked when they ended. There is about half a football field in the Great Plains full of valves, boilers, plumbing, and pumps all ready for a chemical process that doesn’t make financial sense to run. The company that paid for it went bankrupt from the project. It sits there rotting. Months of my life, working well over 60 hours a week
It’s not like there’s a captain of planet Earth, driving humanity towards some common destination. Purpose implies meaning, and I think meaning is subjective and temporary.
I was in a relationship for 13 years.
So yeah.
I’m not even at a decade, and I can only imagine how disruptive and traumatic that would be on so many levels.
I hope it’s well in the past and that you’re underway with your new life now.
Sanding a corner.
Scrapers. Your welcome.
Oh totally. I was going for the pun. “Only to feel that it’s pointless…” womp womp
Work.
Early in my career, I made the mistake of revealing to my employers that I’m competent at my job. More and more work flowed onto my plate and before long, I was assigned tasks that were supposed to go to seniors. So, the seniors received almost double my salary while they enjoyed more open schedules since I was doing my work + some of theirs.
It’s simply not worth it to go above and beyond at work, unless it’s your own business.
if you can dig a hole the fastest someone eventually is going to hand you a bigger shovel
-an uncle of mine multiple occasions.
I do have to mention that he was one of the laziest people I have ever known and died in his mid-40s due to his weight and zero exercise. So while he was technically correct you might be better off being wrong in this one case.
All things in moderation. Hard work is a virtue, but it’s good to recognize when it’s not paying off for you.
In my retail days, every time we had visits from corporate. We would bust ass on overnights to make our location look good.
One time, as a fucking manager, I was told I needed to literally scrub the floors. Our machine that did it hadn’t been repaired in 6 months due to the GM pinching pennies. He told me to scrub the real bad parts by hand.
Corporate came the next AM. Spent all of 5 fucking minutes in our store to tell us his flight got changed and had to leave. I chewed out my manager and told him it was the last time myself, or any of my crew was slapping lipstick on a pig for a corpo visit.
Fitting in society. I might as well say society doesn’t fit in with me.
How did that one go? Being well adjusted to an ill society is not a good thing.
Unsuccessfully at the moment, and I’ve been where I am for a couple years now.
