It’s not that bad. You’re generally not aware of what you’re doing for the first 10 years. Then study for the next 10. Then, if you work to live and not live to work, you might get something out of life. Anything post work, I kinda see as a bonus, not a goal. Predisposed medical conditions may mean you aren’t seeing those years anyway. Actually… it may be that bad lol.
Just don’t take it that seriously. Live till you die.You should be having fun during the 20 years that you’re studying. And you should be having fun during the 40 years that you’re working.
It’s actually possible to get meaning from what you do as well. May not pay the best in the world, but it’s out there. I was in non-profit administration for many years, and I work for a law school now that helps poor folks, many BIPOC, get degrees so they can better themselves and their communities. Social justice people. I’ve also worked for a private conservative-owned company that only enriched some fuckwads, and I’ll not be doing that again.
Also I run a nonprofit that I founded on the side, and we’re hoping to hire our first staff person this year, I get a lot of meaning from that.
Basically if you work to change the world for the better instead of just slumping through your day, you feel good about your life, even though it’s hard work.
Yes, there’s that, too.
But even if you don’t like your job and don’t find much meaning out of it, it’s still worth trying to find contentment and happiness in other parts of your life.
I’ve had jobs I hated with coworkers I loved. I’ve had jobs I’ve liked in places I hated. I’ve had jobs I mostly hated that I actually appreciate having taught me important skills I still use today (for example, a 3-year stint in restaurants in my 20’s was miserable in a lot of ways, but it helped me stretch a tight grocery budget and fed me plenty of staff meals, and 20+ years later I’m still a great cook).
Jobs don’t define us. For many people, they’re just a small part of us. And we should go on to build fulfilling lives for ourselves across many domains, not just at work.
I had fun in college. My major didn’t define my actual day to day, or my memories of that time. I had fun in high school. I had fun in elementary school too. I don’t remember everything or even everyone, but I know I had a blast at those stages in my life, and most of the fun was had outside of school.
Work is the same way.
300 years ago:
Probably die
Work
Die
The meaning of life is listening to groovy basslines on the way to and from work. And hugging your loved ones.
Don’t let anything distract you from that.
Reminds me of that David Bowie lyric…“We live for just these 20 years, do we have to die for 50 more?”.
Suicide until you’re reincarnated in billionaire family.
You incarnate into a rich family just in time for global economic collapse because of the actions of your family.
“Free”
Both my parents retired. Are they living it up? Are they checking things off their bucket lists? Nope. They’re having emergency surgeries, planned surgeries, going to the doctor all the time, taking a regiment of pills or they die, and hanging around the house because they’re old and their mobillity isn’t great.
A just reward after a lifetime of work.
It’s a scam, friends. You’re going to work until you’re dead or until it doesn’t really matter anymore whether you’re dead or not.
I used to get downvoted to shit for saying things like this, but enjoy and use your youth.
No matter how you treat your body, you do not know what will happen to it. You may be athletic, rarely ill, an extremely healthy eater. You can still end up with a genetic condition you didn’t know about, with a cancer you never fully recover from, losing all of your limbs, losing your bowels or bladder. Dying. All kinds of things.
All of this can happen at any time in your life. Any time. You are not safe from bodily ailment just because you are young and apparently healthy.
Even if nothing happens until you are old and decrepit like a healthy person ought to be, you will still have lost the best years of your life.
Hey, I’m ~40 and this is that I do, too! Plus work.
bUt iF yOu SeE yOuR wOrKpLaCe lIkE fAmIlY tHeN yOu nEvEr wOrK a DaY iN yOuR lIfE!
Can this (I hAvE tO mAkE mY pOiNt…) just die already? It was kind of amusing twenty years ago.
iT wAs kiNdA AmuSIng tWeNTy YeARs aGo
This framework fails to consider all the time between those main activities, which we spend shitposting.
Indeed, most days consist of 8 hours working, 8 hours sleeping and 8 hours shitposting.
The last 5-10 years when we can focus all our energy on shitposting will be glorious.
Don’t mistake this as me saying this work-til-you-die shit is okay, cause it’s not. But freedom is as much a mindset as it is a material circumstance. There are people who have everything but freedom and there are people who have nothing but freedom.
How selfish of you to deny your fortune to be able to contribute to the wealth of the chosen few!
40 years? Try 50+
I started working at 14-15, and I’ll be happy if I can retire at 65
Free? That’s when your kids send your grandkids for you to take care of. Ungrateful bastards…
Parents are the ones who should be grateful for their children. Parents are the ones who wanted the children.
I’m living with my wife and kids half a continent away, but every time we visit my parents, they have some kids or house pets from my siblings to take care of. My parents are retired, they enjoy peace, quiet and especially their own schedule by now; they shouldn’t be asked to act as child minders anymore.
40 Hopefully!
The only thing missing from this is the quest for a cruelty free pee, that seems to take up most of our lives these days.
What?!
It’s not my job to educate you
I generally know what cruelty-free means, but searches for “cruelty free pee” just yield regular stuff about cruelty-free products, as well as some anti-odour thing for pet pee… ;n;
Cruelty free pee is pee that didn’t burn when it came out. It’s so cruel that God does this to me.
Can relate.
Did you know that it’s possible to bleed to death (or, in some of our cases, almost bleed to death) as a result of chronic hemorrhoids? Because I do now! Also, blood transfusions kind of suck.
Yikes… Good luck with that.
Are you named for Gongitsune?
Nope! I don’t think my parents named me after anyone or anything. They just picked a common but not too common name with a respectable meaning.
/unshitpost
I have no idea either
/reshitpost
Try harder, colonialist
