"Normal" life

[WrecksPowercolt]

So there I was, 19 years old working my first full time job paying above minimum wage, (called it my grownup job) and like many before me I bought into the belief that I should take out a loan and get a nicer car because "I can make payments and still have money for rent" So that's what I did...then comes the credit card because I have always had issues keeping track of money (don't see the value, leads to spending when I don't need to, luckily I got better) and it's the American dream to have a credit card.

Fast forward! eventually quit that job because shockingly enough, apartment maintenance sucks ass. But wait, I owe money on that credit card and I have that car and other bills too. Fuck it, let future me take care of that.

Cool, I'll get a new job with blackjack and hookers.

... Shit the bills got worse while I was looking for these hookers...I'll get another job and make up for lost income! That'll fix it. I can handle 80 hour Weeks for a month or two...i'm young and Shit and i'm supposed to work for 40 years until I die anyways. Squidward and my dad can't both be liars.

Sweet I can quit the other job today, i'm in a good enough financial position now. caught up with bills...wait what the fuck is that noise coming from my engine? Why am I suddenly not moving? 4000 dollars for a new engine? I owe 5000 on the car...this blows.

am I even fucking living at this point? I've had 7 days off in as many months...2 were sick days. I had one week where 3 hours of sleep before my next shift was "sleeping in"

Why should I have to work until i'm on the way out of life to start enjoying it and doing what I want? The American dream is utter bullshit and you can keep it. I'm almost done paying for that engine and I have someone lined up to buy that fucking car. I'm not going to reenlist as a member of society for a while. I'm not going to follow the ever popular lifeplan that starts with a mortgage for a box to live in, and ends with a life insurance check that pays for a box to be dead in.

I don't buy it anymore. That's not my dream, never was. Don't know why I chased it.

 

[Preacher]

Yeah, welcome to my realization...after 35 years of working and and even >15 years of even going back to college and getting a degree trying to "make it better". I think some of us just aren't destined too 'make it', no matter how smart we are, how much of a work ethic we have, how honest we are or how much we care (or at least used to).

 

[Tude]

@WrecksPowercolt - feel for ya. @Preacher I just got the wind taken out of my sail today. Again. And this has happened several times. Worst one where I worked at Mobil Chemical for 17 years - ending up as a Buyer - oops - sold division and moving division and your job isn't moving. Eff me. Struggeled many years - gave up several times - took under the table jobs (6 yrs bartending) - finally trying again in the business world - even registering with 16 temp agencies getting jobs here and there - no jobs around. eff me again. Got a degree. Been working this job at a base pay 60% less than what I made in 1994 at Mobil - just happy to have placement and I can live on this and do some traveling - scaled way down and am totally fine with that. Today was awesome - making my job a part time position. No more health ins. Im now on a high powered expensive drug ($6800/year). eff me once more again. Does not make one try anymore. Sorry to vent but I feel for all you and understand.

 

[Sip]

I hear you brother. Thank God my old man's obsessive work-aholism taught me that lesson in my teens. Man works 14 hour days so he can make assloads of money to spend on his day off. Which he then spends sleeping... fuck that. I'll take life on two dollars a day and all the free naps under a shade tree I want.

 

[Tude]

Yeah sorry to vent in your thread - but this was from someone who tried and tried and tried and who should have just said eff it years ago and gone off to find dream.

 

[Sip]

I think that is what the thread is meant for, Tude.

 

[Durp]

I feel ya man. I've been as close to housed up as I will allow myself (camper trailer) working a good, reasonable job, but can't handle the obvious opression system I am taking part in. I am supposed to be saving for a backhoe or tractor, but I don't think I can make this life style work for almost another full year. I'm chained here. I have recently found myself sleeping out side again in the woods, making lean toos in stratigic places, avoiding contact with "normal" people, and more or less being homeless even tho I have a nice rubber tramp setup now and again a decent low stress job. I just feel like I'm being placated and silenced because I truly can not complain about my job, and "they" know it. Im kept just comfortable enough, to the point where most would grow into complacintcy. With every day that passes I feel like I'm going to snap if I dont drop out of this utter insanity. Might have to say fuck it and just leave in a couple months at the beginning of the ne nv growing season (late august), and just be at peace that I probably won't have a tractor unless the universe drops one in my lap. I think I rather shovel non stop for myself for 6 months, than work for the system for that amount of time and get a tractor. I guess its just the mark of being an utter fuck. [HASHTAG]#professional[/HASHTAG]failureforlife

 

[cultofsam]

I just quit my normal ass life to travel again, for the third time. I have a back and forth. I don't know what I want, cheers to 21 year olds.

 

[Sip]

@JimH1991 Out of curiousity, what do you so badly want a tractor for? You seem pretty passionate about it.

 

[Durp]

@Sip I bought almost 23 acres in nv and all that is there is dirt. I have a thread going in alternative housing titled something to the affect of homesteading for utter fucks

 

[Sip]

Fucking awesome, I'll check out your thread.

Back to the american dream hating!

 

[East]

i dreamed i would live a simple life, now in my van i live simply enough. repairs now and again and gas here and there, but i don't have a boss or a set work week. in a lot of ways the american dream isn't for me, but i live closer to it than most people here because i have a metal box to live in on wheels, the man still needs his insurance, paperwork and what have you, but this level of freedom strikes a balance that i seek. good luck in your travels friend

 

[Art101]

Right now I am forced to live in this thing they call "normal adult life" who the fuck gets to decide what is normal for me.It sure as hell aint my PO,course she does control what little bit of "freedom" I do have.I felt normal catching out,waiting under a bridge in the rain,or heating up some coffee over a fire in some trees somewhere watching the units shuttle back and forth in the yard.This shit of stressing bills and wondering if I can actually make it through the summer without my back going out completely and all the other shit involved is killing me slowly just like a poison.FUCK NORMALCY and all the crappy entrapments it entails

 

[WrecksPowercolt]

Hey

Yeah sorry to vent in your thread - but this was from someone who tried and tried and tried and who should have just said eff it years ago and gone off to find dream.

Man, you should always say things when you think they need to be said. I'm more than cool with it in my thread.

 

[Rowan]

This is all really speaking to me right now. I transferred to a four year college last year and this spring has been so stressful my hair's actually started falling out. A lot of people seem to see my desire to live simply - so I spend less time at a job and more time doing things I enjoy that also directly contribute to my survival (like gardening and foraging) - as me being lazy and wanting to just "run around and play in the woods all day". Not a very encouraging environment.
Thinking about saving up what money I can over the summer and taking off to the east coast. Chicago is loud and doesn't give you the chance to slow down and enjoy life because everybody is too busy trying to get from point A to point B. The only peace I can get is going down to the lake to pick crab apples and fish.
What most people see as a "normal" life (get a job, a car, a house...) is anything but and that's probably why so many are sick and tired of trying to make it work for them.

 

[Sip]

This is all really speaking to me right now. I transferred to a four year college last year and this spring has been so stressful my hair's actually started falling out. A lot of people seem to see my desire to live simply - so I spend less time at a job and more time doing things I enjoy that also directly contribute to my survival (like gardening and foraging) - as me being lazy and wanting to just "run around and play in the woods all day". Not a very encouraging environment.
Thinking about saving up what money I can over the summer and taking off to the east coast. Chicago is loud and doesn't give you the chance to slow down and enjoy life because everybody is too busy trying to get from point A to point B. The only peace I can get is going down to the lake to pick crab apples and fish.
What most people see as a "normal" life (get a job, a car, a house...) is anything but and that's probably why so many are sick and tired of trying to make it work for them.

Yeah. The people who call you lazy are just pissed because they know their life is bullshit, and nothing like they dreamed it would be, but they have no idea how to take it back. They have to work their asses off, so why shouldn't you? Oh wait, they don't have to work their asses off? Everyone says they have too. You just must be lazy... Fuckers.

There is nothing wrong at all with hard work, but that entirely depends on what you mean by work. It's hard work to build a kick-ass permanent camp for the winter. It's hard to build a raft to attempt to sail the missipi. It's hard work to sucessfully steal bigger and bigger amounts of things from your fucking job without getting caught.

Working 80hrs a week in some factory so you can buy a big screen tv to fall asleep in front of one your one day off a month isn't hard work.... it's just slaving.

 

[spectacular]

I quit it all a year ago and have trouble imagining going back. In fact I thought about getting a job again and a small voice whispered "suicide" in the back of my mind, which it is. Killing ourselves, the planet, each other.

 

[Odin]

Na na na na, hey hey-hey, goodbye

Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye

I quit my job...

na na na na

Oh yea yea!

Do a little dance now...

Oh yea yea!

goodbye.

 

[Sip]

I'm gonna think of you when I finish my month at McHell-hole, Odin.

 

[Rowan]

Yeah. The people who call you lazy are just pissed because they know their life is bullshit, and nothing like they dreamed it would be, but they have no idea how to take it back. They have to work their asses off, so why shouldn't you? Oh wait, they don't have to work their asses off? Everyone says they have too. You just must be lazy... Fuckers.

There is nothing wrong at all with hard work, but that entirely depends on what you mean by work. It's hard work to build a kick-ass permanent camp for the winter. It's hard to build a raft to attempt to sail the missipi. It's hard work to sucessfully steal bigger and bigger amounts of things from your fucking job without getting caught.

Working 80hrs a week in some factory so you can buy a big screen tv to fall asleep in front of one your one day off a month isn't hard work.... it's just slaving.

Yeah I mean it's tough to get around work altogether. Building a permanent camp or sailing the Mississippi definitely doesn't sound easy, but it does sound a hell of a lot more satisfying than sitting in a building all day doing tasks for somebody else.
I've spent all semester hearing from my professors how great the industry they work in is (which is what school is basically preparing me for) and at the same time they'll complain about how they can't work on the things they want to because they have to make money.