Is this what life is really about? (mid 20's crisis)...

I'm twice your age....I'm almost done raising my family. My biggest advice to you is to NOT GET YOURSELF IN TO TOOOOOO MUCH DEBT! Learn YOUR wants and needs now. You have an entire lifetime to do what you love if you don't get yourself stuck in a job that you hate, to pay for *things* that won't mean crap once you get them. Live one day at a time, but make a game plan to do the things you love. You could do it for a job eventually or just a hobby. For me my passion is nature, bird watching and traveling to be in beautiful nature spots. While our kids were younger, there was not much extra money, so vacations were tons of camping trips to gorgeous spots. Because travel is a huge priority for us, we never got into getting the bigger house filled with new furniture or fancy cars. Now because we don't have a mountain of debt, in the last three years, we got to go to more awesome places like Costa Rica, the Pacific Northwest, the CA coast, Yosemite Park, Grand Canyon, Utah, and this Summer we are headed to Yellowstone National Park with all our sons, for 10 days of hiking, rafting, kayaking. Listen to your soul....it won't steer you wrong.

I think I'm having one of those too!

I really have the urge to live in the countryside, yet still work in the city. The only good thing is that I like my job, and it pays good for what I do. It's kinda holding me back in a way too though in that I can't just up and move to the other side of the country/world. Outside of work, the rest of my life is pretty pathetic and it needs to change soon otherwise I'll just give up on life totally by the time I'm 30 :roll:

Jennytree wrote:

I think I'm having one of those too!

I really have the urge to live in the countryside, yet still work in the city. The only good thing is that I like my job, and it pays good for what I do. It's kinda holding me back in a way too though in that I can't just up and move to the other side of the country/world. Outside of work, the rest of my life is pretty pathetic and it needs to change soon otherwise I'll just give up on life totally by the time I'm 30 :roll:

Exercise always helps with that feeling. Get out and meet new people. all the clicheed advise works. Go do things you like. If you want to go watch a band but no-one will go, go anyway. if you drive, go drive around the country / coast / mountains.

And then, go see the Breeders in Vicar Street next week, thatll probably help too!

Thoughts_Arrive wrote:

Touching on some points raised/discussed in washedinblack91's thread on burning out with her studies....

I think I am having one!
It's like I am lost and not sure wtf I am doing or wtf I should be doing.
I don't think my life was meant for me to be chained to my desk all day long stuck in this shitty money hungry corporate world where everyone stabs everyone in the back and steps on toes and is out right fake all day long.
It gets me down and I am in midst of an emotional crisis, I feel like I am angsty teenager when I am almost 25!

I feel like I wasted 4 years of my life in University for a degree not relevant for the work I do, plus I am $10,000 in debt (the government pays for our higher education and we pay it back through additional income tax once we begin work full time). I got a marketing degree and I hate marketing now, the subjects were fun but then I had a change of mind, I don't wanna ram shit down peoples throats to get them to buy.
I am a creative individual with a burning passion for music, feel like I should do something with music but I don't think I can afford to study further. I have always been into art as well, was too lazy to get into graphic design courses after high school, I wasn't a dedicated student then.

I am freaked out at soon having to move out, buy a house, pay the mortgage, or rent.
Then there is finding a future wife, having kids.....arghhhh.

Sorry had to vent, anyone else been through the same crisis or had the same fears, or anyone else in my boat?

just now, i was walking around my university's campus listening to some awesome u2 songs and dancing in the shadows. when i go back home i swear to god i'm going to start a band. im scared shitless about it because i dont really know how to sing (though i really want to learn, i feel it in me, always have) and i really want to learn how to play bass as well though i dont know much. but i feel like i need to be SOMETHING big and you know what, u2 didn't know jack shit about their instruments but they just taught themselves and now they're like one of the biggest bands in music history. if they can do it, so can we!
as i'm typing this i think i'm in the tail end of an anxiety attack. i swear to you. i was having an awesome time listening to my music, it's the best feeling in the world to just let loose and let the music fill you with such powerful and beautiful emotions. but then i get to my dorm room and for some reason i feel like i'm on cocaine, i'm all jittery, my mind, heart, and mouth going a mile a minute, cant breathe, getting chills. i look up my symptoms online and it said i'm having an anxiety attack! could you fucking believe it?! i couldn't imagine why i would have one my life is FUCKING GREAT i have a great family i dont have any disease my family is well off i got great music to listen to, what the FUCK have I got to be so anxious over?! then i realize, i have a paper due tomorrow.
SCHOOL IS KILLING ME! i'm over here flippin out as i'm typing (well I'm less anxious now than I was an hour ago, but- holy shit did i just say an hour ago?! I'VE BEEN HAVING THIS FUCKING SO-CALLED ANXIETY ATTACK FOR A FUCKING HOUR?!) this spiel, i'm fucking irritable as shit and i'm only now calming down.
you and me BOTH need to get the fuck out of this while we still can! the only problem is, what the fuck do i do if i'm not at school? i sure as hell am not working at god damned retail, i might as well kill myself now. god, i never curse this much but i'm just so fucking irritated at it all right now. i want to run away to a place where time stops and all i have to do is take a walk and enjoy music. maybe stop by a tree and write my book. that's all i want. i just want to take a walk and be.
let's run away to that place, it seems nice there. no more fucking cubicles, no more meaningless homework, a place where man hasn't touched its surface where only the free live, where animals and nature and art lives. i wonder if that's what heaven is. it would be for me.
why does life have to seemingly be about wasted degrees, wasted lives, wasted potential, wasted dreams, indecision, wrong decisions, seeing numerous possibilities, infinite forks in a road, yet feeling like you're being shoved into one direction?

i've said it once i'll say it again, I'm a seed wondering why it grows...

Byrnzie wrote:

Thoughts_Arrive wrote:

Touching on some points raised/discussed in washedinblack91's thread on burning out with her studies....

You could always go abroad and teach English. It's easy. If you have a degree then you can go to Japan, or China e.t.c and get an easy job where they pay for your accommodation and pay you good money. You can then experience a new culture whilst having enough time to consider your options.

Y'know, I've been thinking about this. I'd love to do it in Germany though! Fella in my work left to teach in Ibiza of all places

Thoughts_Arrive wrote:

My family coming down on me like a tonne of bricks.

Thanks for the advice.

seriously? come on! it's not their life, it's YOURS. if they truly cared they'd let you do whatever you wanted as long as it didn't hurt you. like someone said earlier, pay off your debt then live. if they do come down on you, let it roll off your back. wouldn't you rather leave this world knowing you did what you wanted, not what others expected of you?

Thoughts_Arrive wrote:

vduboise wrote:

Your old enough to make decisions for yourself. You can not live life by what your family wants. In the end it will make you very very unhappy. I know. You've done what the family wants for x amount of years- went into a career that you hate now- maybe its time to live for you. Make you happy for a bit of time.

I'm not saying drop everything at once- just take baby steps to see what you want to do to make you happy. just my 2¢.

In all things, its your choice. Have you brought it up to your family what you want to do? has the response been totally negative?

No Way!
They'd just laugh at me call me crazy and tell me you just want to be those bands you listen to.
They are just old school Europeans.
Thanks for the advice, I agree.
The sooner I move out the better, then they won't know hehe.

So they laugh- call you crazy- that is not so bad. Will they cut you off from the family? that would be bad.

Then don't tell them. I was still working in my old job while I pursued the new one. Every single time. As I said- I did not just drop everything- but I took the classes after work and when I was done- I moved on.

So what's holding you back is that you still live with them. hmmm. when are you leaving? Make a plan to move out by the end of the year and then do it on the sly.