You work and then you die?

I've been doing a lot of thinking... like most people, I have a full time job. I work 40+ hours a week, 8+ a day, come home, and rest for the next day of work. It seems like life it just taken up with work, work, work... like, what's the point? Right now I have no choice but to work in fast food since I don't own a car and its the only job I can get within walking/biking distance. My boyfriend and I live together, both work long hours, and it seems like all we do is work... where is the enjoyment in life, besides the little moments? it just seems like I'm wasting away...
any advice? Like, how to make things easier or something?

 

Well you have to build a life first and much like a house that takes work to build. If you change the plan on the house (life) to be something more simple less impressive to others you can do it faster. Also why stick to fast food, work for yourself part time. Maybe hit sales and stuff on the weekends, and ebay list them for extra spare cash. Run a program like quicken and account for every penny spent and you might suprise yourself how much money you are wasting that could be saved to build a little pile of cash to change something about your current situation.


Maybe you two could do little small construction projects for others on weekends like decks or ramps for the elderly in your area, its easy money, not good money cuase they are pretty broke at times too but money extra and its time working together.

Look for things that make money that you both enjoy, dont look at it as I need to make $$ per hour look at it as we are spending time together and $1.00 more is $1.00 more than what you had before that.

Change your thought process a little and you might see new ways to get both money you want or need and the time you need together.

 

thank you so much for the advice; I'll definately talk it over with Evy. You made a good point with the "building a house" analogy.
As for money, we are watching what we're spending. Evy is surprisingly good at budgeting and has a little Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet that allows us to type in our income and expenses and it usually shows that we hardly have any extra money. We both work hard to save money by not spending it to ahve fun; instead we smoke, hike, walk, talk, have bed ins, etc. but still, it would be nice to have more than two days where we could relax and honestly enjoy ourselves rather than preparing for the next work week.

 

quit your job, have an alternative lifestyle, get back to basics!

 

and how do you suppose I do that? We won't be able to afford rent, we'll be homeless, etc. BTW I love your John Lennon signature, I just finished watching "The US vs John Lennon"

 

Have you ever been homeless? It can be pretty awesome if you do it right. Free yourself of all your stuff, find something to do that you want to do, and go for it. You can go do volunteer work, for example. Go to India or whatever, food and lodging taken care of, all you have to do is spend some time each day taking care of others and being a good person.

Do you have any skills? Any sport or activity either of you are good at? An instructor course won't cost much or take long. Or you can jump on board a ship and work your way over to, say, Asia. Free or cheap accomodation, nothing to spend money on. Then you arrive in paradise after a couple of months. Think outside the box. The only benefits to a life of working your ass off and living in one spot are the things you can buy and do, and the comfort of everything being familiar and safe (which isn't really a benefit anyway, in my opinion).

I'm not just talking out of my ass. I used to work three days a week, and never more than 4-5 hours a day. I wasn't overly wealthy, sure, but I had a chilled lifestyle and I made ends meet.

There are so many things you can do in this wonderful world of ours. Don't restrict yourself. I know it's a cliché, but the only thing keeping you from having the best life you can is yourself. And to give you some advice I wish someone would've given me when I was 19: Go chase down your life and live it, right now. The sooner you get started, the better. The people who tell you you can't do whatever it is you set your eyes on are the people who are too afraid to follow their own dreams, and don't want to see you succeed where they failed so miserably.

 

Exactly right

The last few years i have been able to live ok off working 20 hours a week, and really well when I get above that. i also work in days off, and going out of town.

Plus hopefully you will get jobs that you like more after working for a while...at least jobs you don't dread going to, usually, because there are always going to be days you dread sometimes

 

Atleast you're on the right track...A lot of people realize this when its already to late; when they are old and tired..

Maybe this short clip will help to form your thoughts about it a little further:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERbvKrH-GC4

 

What a cool video. Short, sweet and to the point.

 

Work is good for the soul.

I can't understand why anybody outside of highschool would work a minimum wage job, though.

 

Neccessity.

 

What about working before you get your degree/diploma, or throughout school? What else can you do?

 

Well, I've never ever worked so I cant say anything on the subject.

 

Ive had a million jobs hehehe. I get bored easy.

 

I get bored easily too.
But it never occured to me to get a job.

 

Do you friends have jobs?

 

Nope.
Well, some had summer jobs but thats it.

 

I guess its different culture stuff. everyone iv eknown got jobs when they were fifteen ish.

 

Build houses. Survey. Timber Cruise. Weld. Mining. Tree-plant. Guide-assistant. Political assistant.

There is lots if you're willing to look for it.

 

I like to work.

Working in a greenhouse over the breaks as I do is extremely cleansing and meditative. There is lots of physical labour involved, which makes me feel like I'm actually accomplishing something, while there is also a lot of work with plants which gives me a lot of time to think.

What I do hate is office work.

Point being... work can be something wonderful if you find the right job.