Home

[deima]

I'm not really ready to go. But my flight is scheduled for this coming Monday. That makes tomorrow (Friday) finals day, Saturday is departure prep day (all day long... dear god so much to do), Sunday is moving out of the dorm day, and Monday will contain my final few hours in Tokyo (for now).

I've decided not to waste my time studying for the final

Comments

[deima]

I actually disagree with this type of thinking. No offense to you, we just have different outlooks.

Basically, I'd prefer getting up in the morning because I want to go to work, than getting up to avoid getting fired. Hence, my wanting so desperately to start my own little shop. I'd rather experience some financial turbulence and enjoy what I do, than spend 1/3 of every day doing a job just for the paycheck to spend on the other 1/3 of my day (note: the remaining 1/3 is sleep, so I don't want to hear any nonsense about my mathematical skills). I mean, to me that screams "When you die, you will have wasted 1/3 of your lifetime." 1/3! That's not a scoff-able amount.

Being someone not particularly convinced that there's an afterlife, I can't very well allow myself to waste that much precious time doing something that will mean nothing but accumulated years of waiting for the clock to reach 5pm. Beyond pointless, it seems downright silly from my perspective.

And on another note: What, exactly, is "growing up"? What defines a person as a grown-up? Mortgage, dirty diapers, minivans and soccer matches? Marriage, divorce, alimony? A car with a Democratic/Republican bumper sticker and matching, vocalized political views?

Being a grown-up seems like more pomp and fluff than anything of significance. And being youthful is such a bad thing? Give me a studio loft or apartment over my own little shop and just enough income to live off of, and I don't need this social security/retirement/grown-up stuff!

[evildennis]

I dont' think our outlooks are all that different, when you get to the detail level and don't look at the generalized statements.

Don't get me wrong, I go to work because I want to. I like the people I work with and I like the work, but it's not my passion in life. To me it's the same routine as school was. I did like school and the people I went to school with, but during the summer time, I never went out of my way to try to go to school. And when I have a vaccation from work, I don't go out of my way to make sure to work.

I wasn't passionate about either thing, but I was good at it and enjoyed it. If I didn't like what I was doing now, I'd go find a different job. But if I were to live off my passions...well, I'd probably be living on wellfare. Since writing stories and poems, composing and playing music, cooking food, playing video games, playing soccer or taking walks in parks and watching nature are stuff that you have to be top of your game to make a living off of and my skills in them are amature at best. (It's like me saying I love soccer (which I do), but I could never make a living playing it, my skills can't get me past a recreational team.) So to me I have to balance something I enjoy and am good at versus something I have a passion about but not the skills to actually do. In the end I would get more enjoyment of doing a good job, than doing something I like and doing it badly. So that's where I think our mentalities probably differ.

And I won't fault you for the 1/3 sleep. We all need that. I've actually lost weight by sleeping more. And also by sleeping less you put more strain on your body so you probably won't live as long. So sleep is a vital part of living.

To me growing up is taking on major responsibilites. Of which I'd put mortgage, kids and marrage in that boat. All of those are major changes in life that require you to be mature enough in your responsibility to handle them properly.

And there is a difference between being young at heart and growing up. You can have both.

And yeah, I think a loft over a shop I ran in a city where I didn't need a car to get around would be fun. I could watch the people go buy and all that. From my time in London I learned I am a city person and not a country person. (Although the freedom of having a car is a hard thing to trade away.) But I also know I have no skills at being a salesperson, so I don't think I'd do too well as a shop owner.

But yeah, find what you want to do and go do it. That's what it comes down to in the end.

[deima]

Meh, I guess that's where we differ then. I'd rather do something I love and be okay at it (at least enough to live off of) than do something like school or my other jobs again. Yeah, they were fun at times, interesting, all learning experiences, and the people were many times enjoyable, but it still felt like a grind to me.

Like you said, it's a routine. It's getting up in the morning and knowing you'll be doing the same thing you did before you went to bed. For me, school and all my previous jobs felt more like something I -had- to do because it was expected. Even more than that, it was a beat-in mental state where each form of higher education was just the next essential step. The problem is, I never knew what the steps were leading to, if anything at all. It was just something that was required of me, and I'm finally seeing that nothing's really required, just expected, and expectations are easy to let down even when you're trying.

That was kind of a stream of consciousness rant, so I apologize.

And mortgages, kids, marriage? Those are maybe proof of your maturity, but they're not your maturity. Again, expected, but not required.