1y ago

🎵that's life🎵

142 comments

And then you get out of school and realise that those were the good times.
- Nah, peak is university in terms of free time.
  
  I mean, for the subset of people who go to uni and can support themselves without also working a lot in that time, yeah.
  In my time at uni there was
  work, at which the hours were inconsistent
  coursework, which there was a lot of
  constantly battling a shit landlord who didn't give a toss about uni students and left the flat in disrepair, but the housing shortage meant he could get away with charging a fortune for a mouldy flat with broken windows and non-working appliances
  There was a lot of good, sure, but uni can be a very stressful time.
  
  Not if you choose engineering as your major. I’ve never worked harder or longer hours than when I was in college.
  
  If you knew how many times I thought about ditching my job and just go to uni again…
  
  Not for STEM Eastern European universities. 😆
  
  If you can afford not working, yeah. That wasn't a reality for me or most people I know. Luckily I'm in a career that doesn't value a major that much, so I dropped out after finding a decent job
  
  I had a full load of classes at uni and worked 40 hours a week. Not much free time was has by me
  
  But university students manage to feel overwhelmed if their course load has them putting in 35 hours a week.
- I always got pretty worried when adults kept saying that school was the good times growing up, as I didn't have a particularly good time, and was not onboard for it being downhill from there.
  Luckily I've learned that it's not actually universally applicable, my life has definitely just gotten better as I've gotten older.
  
  It's different.
  It's way better in some ways - especially if you find a good career in a field you're passionate about.
  But some of the responsibilities of adulthood are a burden that is hard to appreciate until you're there. And the perspective gained by life experience is also very different, for better or worse.
  For instance, I went through a breakup last year at 39 with someone I was fully expecting to marry. It was my first major relationship failure in decades, and as I was being dumped I expected it to crush me.
  What ended up hurting the most was that it didn't hurt that much. I didn't spiral into depression or fall apart at work. I wasn't happy about it, but I was fine. A younger me would have been overwhelmed by the emotional toll, but the adult me was able to keep moving forward without breaking stride.
  And in a way that's what hurts. The passion of youth has been tempered by a lifetime of experience that puts everything into perspective.
  
  They're the good times because you see you had no responsibilities and endless potential to be so many things, which becomes less and less true as you age. Of course, it's miserable too not knowing what you are/what to do and feeling lost because you have no responsibilities, so it's really just a grass is greener thing I imagine.
  
  my life has definitely just gotten better as I’ve gotten older.
  I'm guessing 20s-30s then? Cos Once you hit 40s things start breaking and falling off.
  
  For me, school was a shithole that I was glad it was over, those were not the good years. Things are not perfect, but they have gotten radically better ever since.
  The only thing about school that was good is that I made a few very good friends. Those are probably going to be life long friendships.
- I just started my internship, and I have to say, it is so good not to have to worry about exams, projects and so on aftera full day of school and on weekends. When I close the lid of the laptop, the day is over. Plus I get smaller days, from 9 to 5 instead of from 8 to 5/6. I have never had as much free time
  
  Your school day was 8 to 6? Damn. That definitely doesn't sound normal.
- Not trying to downplay your experience, but uni was actually so much better for me... being able to focus on things that actually coincide with my interests and abilities in Uni was so liberating after being forced to go through five classes a day five days a week, most of which were either insultingly idiotic or existentially difficult... Not to mention having an actually human-paced schedule with ample time to plan ahead instead of constantly being in damage reduction mode. I remember thinking to myself in the first year of uni: "Is this what normal life is supposed to feel like?" I'm still recovering from school emotionally, but the fact that I finally have the mental space to recover is definitely a good sign. I guess you and I just have way different schools, universities, and personal circumstances!

I've got some bad news for you...
- 37 here. Just gotta make it through this quarter hour.
  
  I'm hoping the world ends soon. I really want to pick up smoking again.

Yeah, that totally ends with school.
I definitely don’t live in this state perpetually while I work with no summer break and just a few days at Christmas. Nope. Definitely not.
- Being American sounds shit. You really need to fight for paid holiday & sick leave. It's fucking bonkers you don't have it.
  
  I’m Canadian, where we market ourselves as better than Americans, but somehow I get more holidays when I’m working for US firms.
  Canada is a resource colony state and always has been.
  
  Fuckin' tell me about it. Its bad enough our institutions treat us like dogs, but then the Europeans like to come in gloating.
  
  Its amazing how they have all them guns but basically no workers rights.
  
  I think what you are talking about is communism. Sorry, I'm not dumb, I know better. Excuse me while I donate my paycheck to Trump so he can make America great again.

This seems like the perfect place to use “oh my sweet summer child”
- At the time it really was like this. The amount of responsibility and work felt immense.
  
  And we never realized it was about the best most of us would ever have it.
- At the time it really was like this. The amount of responsibility and work felt immense.
  
  Oh yeah, it wasn’t exactly fun. I remember wondering how the hell adults do it since they have bills to pay and a bunch of other crap to deal with.
  But still, being an adult in general is way nicer than being a student.

Go wild kids!
- 👌

Oh, shit, was that supposed to stop at school?

Just wait until you finish school and join the work force lol
- Yeah school is the tutorial :-/
- It turns from "just make it through this week" to "just make it through this day"

Don't worry, it's the same but worse for working full time
- I just need to get through this... Forever.
  
  Every day is somehow worse than the one before.
- When I'm working full time I can afford food and heat. Way better than being in school.
  
  Where do you live that working full time guarantees someone enough money for food and heat?
  
  Moved into a place recently with electric floorboard heaters, just got an electric bill for $400 so I guess I'll be cold this winter
  
  good joke

Working just gets worse... 😔

Spoken like someone that hasn't been working very long, or if at all.
While school can be very pressure intense around exams in ways many jobs aren't you at least have summer and other breaks. For work you get vacation time sure, but it's nowhere near in terms of time.
Further adult life has a whole slew of responsibilities on top that you need to handle. Most 30+ can't subside on the crap we ate during college, we can't fuck off from our responsibilities when we can't be arsed with minimal consequences and we sure as shit won't find social stimulus without putting in effort, neither friends nor romantic. Sure if you live where you've always lived then you hopefully have childhood/school friends left at 30 but if you've moved then it's not a given at all.
- can’t fuck off from our responsibilities when we can’t be arsed with minimal consequences
  This might be the most (long term) depressing thing about adult life. Having a class for a semester or a year means that the mental overhead of a class builds up but, when you're done, that demand is gone and you start over without baggage next term. Jobs build up that overhead, but it just never lets off, ever, unless you quit to take a new job. Switching (professional) jobs is similar to a semester/year end and - esp if you can swing a couple weeks in between - gives you that re-zeroing and that little honeymoon period at the beginning like the start of a class when you don't have homework yet. The difference is that the switch often occurs on a scale of a decade, not a year.
  
  Shit, I refuse to stay in a job for 10 years. There's no reward for loyalty anymore because companies will very quickly kick you to the curb when they determine their executives and shareholders aren't making enough money.
  And raises are a joke. The best way these days to get meaningful growth is to move companies every 3-4 years.

Nice.

Honey, welcome to life.

Work is pretty much the same, but depending on your job it can be way worse, or actually not that bad. I've had both.
Started off in a repetitive job with highly demanding monthly targets that we'd need to hit to get our full bonus (which was a significant part of total comp, salary was low as hell). It was an endless cycle of "X more days until Friday".
I transitioned into software engineering. Ya know what? Occasionally I was EXCITED for the next work week. It's still work and it's hella stressful and sometimes you wish you could take the next 5 years off and have no obligations. But a lot of the time, you're not actively waiting for the weekend anymore. Helps that my commute before I transitioned fully to home office was a 12 minute walk and I had after-work activities on weekdays to be excited for.
- School for me was living hell for 5 days a week, working for me is alright and at least i also have money to use in my free time. Which I have less of of course, but even if school hadn't been hell I'd never want to go back.
  Which is to say, if anyones reading this who's still in school and is getting discouraged from people saying working is worse, don't be. It's very subjective and depends on your job too. If school feels like torture, work will probably be an improvement.
  
  Honestly the worst thing about school were the other kids. Everybody are little psychopaths and are utterly ruthless. At work everybody just wants to get paid and no one really gives a shit about other's business (YMMV though).
  Also there's no homework, which is a godsend as somebody with ADHD. Just show up, work your little butt off and go home, nice and simple.

"You are running out of 'It is what it is', are you sure you want to continue?" [Y][N]
- sucks to suck -- would you like to continue?

Then I suppose school really is preparing you for life. All this time I thought they were just teaching to the test.
- yea. regular life is this x100 more intense
  
  Plus rent (or a mortgage).

Boy do I have news for you

Wait until you discover jobs

Look on the brightside. You still have the weekend when you are in school. Wait until you get a family and every single fucking weekend is taken up events you don't want to go to but you get nagged into.
- Hey, you don't need a family to have your whole weekend eaten up by a bunch of shit you don't wanna do.
  
  I don't know. Had a few good years between marriage and uni where I could fill my weekend with fun stuff. That was pretty nice.
- Yeah but most people in school have to hold a side job too to make ends meet
  
  Including me.
  I would gladly take a side job over another weekend birthday party. Work isn't supposed to be fun, there is something insulting about being dragged to something supposed to be fun but isn't.
  As I am typing this it occurs to me I have a solution to my problem. Thanks for inspiring me.
- I had homework during the weekend when I was in school...

Work too

What do you think life is.... :)
Even though it's not endless, thank God.

With school, you have something to look forward to. It's supposed to end at a certain point. Just wait until you get into the workforce.
- There is plenty to look forward to in the workplace. For example one day I will die, and all of my problems will become not my problem anymore.
- as Floyd said... The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older. Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Just wait until you realize that's all the workforce feels like too.

It's preparing you to do the same for work.

School is not a good place for smart people.
- School is not a good place for people.
  Ftfy

That's why concepts for longer weeks never worked out.

Wait until you get a job.
- We need to start shoving kids down mines again. Get them acclimated to real work by the time they leave school.
  
  jesus

Oh no life after school is so much worse 😂

School is an interesting way to spell life.

*life

Serious note: make some effort to find a career you actually enjoy so you're not just waiting for every week to end. Basically waiting to die.
- Fuck, now you tell me
  
  I just recently figured it out too!
- What if all the careers id enjoy dont pay well or have extremely high barriers to entry?
  
  If they don't pay well then that's a different problem than the meme refers to. If there's a high barrier to entry, compete like fucking crazy and own that shit. Any different attitude is a distraction that will sabotage your efforts.
- My alternative advice is to find something you're passionate about to do on the weekdays when you aren't working.
  
  That's good, but then 5/7ths of your life is wasted. Plus, you don't really have the time and energy to fully commit to 2 days of hobbies, so you're really only enjoying 1/7th of your miserable wasted life.
- Your life is killing you