I feel pretty awful

[Junkhead]

I feel like everything's "the same", things are dull, I keep wasting my time here on the Internet because I don't really have much of a "life" outside of this, since I've just finished school and we're in Summer vacations. School was pretty much the closest thing resembling "a life" (what people would normally refer to as such), since I'd go out of my home for a few hours and talk to other people, even if not intended.

In short, I feel really bored with my life. A hobby of mine would be to go to the gym, which, I love doing. It sucks because I can't go every single day, since the body needs time to recover (I also go x3 a week, so I don't have to eat more and get fat...). I think finally getting a job (which my mother wanted me to finish school first, before getting one) can solve an important part of my current life, as it would net me money and would get me something to do.

Sorry, I think it's worth clarifying: By "awful", I don't actually mean TERRIBAD. I mean...that I'm not really "living" my life. And that's pretty awful, if you ask me. In terms of family, friends and wealth, I'm actually doing pretty well.

Edited January 18, 2015 by The Alice

[eclipse]

A part-time job would get you out of the house; barring that, you can see which organizations need volunteers. If neither option is available, then try something you've never, EVER done before (for example, if there's a ceramics shop in your area, create something). Or, you can vow to not play video games/visit SF (or whereever else you go) for a week - perhaps you can clean your house, or go hiking. I have no idea what's available in your area, so have a look~!

[Junkhead]

Thank you, eclipse.

[hammerene]

Hm, trying new things and finding new hobbies would be fun. Maybe there are classes in your local community center? When it comes to hobbies though, it really boils down to preference and some preferences aren't apparent from the start. It may take some time searching but I'm certain that you will find fresh interests with a solid amount of determination and openess.

Learning new skills is good too, from sewing to snapping with two fingers.

If it's a case of getting out of the house, I would say cycling is nice way to go about it, especially mountain biking. It's both exercise and experiencing the outdoors.

[EricaofRenais]

I know what you mean because I finished my associates degree and now I can't decide what I should major in or do with my life. I am trying to set goals for myself this year and after I complete a goal I will set another one and I am hoping that after a while I can figure out what I should do. right now if the weather is nice I am trying to clean my family's place up so I am outside doing physical work as much I can and after I finish that I need to learn how to drive and get my license so I can drive to job interviews and other things, because I had major health problems that made it so I could not learn to drive for a long time. Just set a goal for yourself and stick with it until you finish it and then see what you want to do next.

[FrostyFireMage]

I know how you feel, my town is really boring and has next to no places of entertainment.

[Sentacotus]

This past semester I had to go home to deal with some life stuff so I totallly know where you're coming from. All my friends either were in school or already moved on so no one was around. Like you I went to the gym everyday sometimes twice even but yeah it can get old and you do need to eat and sleep and all that jazz. I actually got involved in martial arts this way. Many towns have local clubs I happened to get lucky because my neighbor runs one and I went to his. A part time job would definetely help nothing wrong with earning an honest buck plus you can get into saving/investing it (even if just a little) to keep you occupied. This is actually how I got interested in collecting is that I got a part time job and set aside a little bit and decided I wanted to collect gaming stuff primarily Zelda and Fire Emblem stuff. My current goal is to complete my collection of localized FE titles. I won't get preachy much but church helped me get involved in local things even if it was just helping others out and helping with church events like festivals and so on and I wasn't even the religous type at all. So there's that.

Edited January 18, 2015 by TacoMan42

[MercyWalk]

If your mother is really adamant about you not getting a job, try at least picking up some skills that will help out in employment later on so you have more options and whatnot, for example, getting a first aid certificate.

[Kirie]

A couple years ago, when I moved to Amsterdam, I went from having a full-time job and being fairly busy on a regular basis, to... well, having absolutely nothing to do, basically. I had no friends (aside from my fiancé), no job or anything else to occupy my time. Hell, I didn't even speak the language.

In the past 2+ years, though, I've found a lot to occupy my time. I learned the city and my neighborhood; did a lot of biking and walking. I started learning the language, and I'm halfway decent at it now. I did a lot of reading, writing, played video games, and even went back to old hobbies like art.

Perhaps it's just me, but I do find that learning things is one of the best ways to occupy a decent length of time. There are a lot of free resources that you can find online to learn all sorts of cool things, especially languages (which is one of my favourite things to study). You can find something you like or that is interesting in some way, and figure out what you can learn about it. You may discover a new talent or interest.

[MacLovin]

Meet new people, enroll in extracurricular activities. Get involved in a hobby with an existing community.

[Arthis]

During highschool, I lived in the country, so I wasn't able to be super social outside of highschool. I kept busy with sports during the school year, and I've had a job in the summers since I was 14, but I still wasted quite a bit of time in my room. Now that I'm in college, I live in an apartment that people come over for games (one of my roommates is a game freak) every single night. Having a dozen people in here, just hanging out, playing video games, board games, and talking isn't unusual.

Anyways, sometimes its difficult, yea. What changed it for me is I decided to do things other people are afraid to do. In the summers I build and drive demo derby cars. I moved across the country to go to college. I took a cross country road trip this summer through the rockys, and multiple other road trips in the past year.

Don't be afraid to go out and just do stuff you've always wanted. Make plans to do stuff with friends. Start a game night with your friends. We have regular Dungeons and Dragons gamenights, and it's always a hoot (as long as you have a good Dungeon Master) or something like that, that can take up a lot of time without getting monotonous.

[Vagrant]

Why not go travel the world?

Perhaps you need some adventure, and excitement... Or dreams, for that matter. Real, huge dreams. Instead of a job, or a position with aims to have you merely subsist... Or fall into some dull routine.

I honestly can't think of anything better than world travel, regarding Planet Earth, in present time. So much to see and live through. But there's also to love and be loved by someone great. The power of close human relations is another worthy life activity.

Yet even better is to world travel with an awesome partner, or with friends.

But even better than that, is to travel with others, while having a job that you can operate remotely from a laptop. Like freelance arts. Preferably something you like.

Then you can truly roam, uninhibited by the limitations imposed by the money system, and bodily needs.

Hotels, restaurants, beaches, roads, cycling, camping, mountains, hostels, huts, dumpster diving, getting robbed, tasting odd Moroccan street food, living like kings in cheap-price countries with your western salary, walking London, Paris, Dublin pubs, ect. Whatever.

Go wander.

And you best do it while you're young and eager.

Years sometimes go by frighteningly fast... What will you get out of them?

PS: I've already done all of the above I said, and more, and I'm only 23. Had to quit everything (College, sedentary life), but it was infinitely worth it.

Why am I here in this forum? Hacking some FE games that I like to play while I'm not either reading, writing, drawing, or doing freelance work... Or whatever I like to do during my over-abundant free time.

We are sometimes referred to as "cyber nomads". Thanks to the advent of the internet, such a life of perpetual travel is possible. You'll be fine as long as there's ATM machines around.

But if there's not, or you go broke, or get robbed? That's where the real fun begins.

Freedom on Earth.

Edited February 6, 2015 by Vagrant

[Selah]

Normally if I feel like that I try to create something, or do something that will last and help others.

[Parrhesia]

Why not go travel the world?

You do know how much plane tickets and accommodation costs, right?

[Lord Raven]

He's a Vagrant, so it's free!

EDIT: Delete this, I didn't realize this was in SD, my bad.

Edited February 11, 2015 by Lord Raven

[Vagrant]

You do know how much plane tickets and accommodation costs, right?

What, you want to stay in hotels and hostels every day, and dine out just as much? You hear this all the time.

Yes. I admit this world is not ideal for wandering.

But there's always a way. Many ways to go about it, in fact. Cheapest of which are squatting and dumpster diving, and for transport, hitch-hiking. Which even a fully broke anyone could achieve easily, if they have arms and legs at least.

Indeed, knowing the essentials actually means you can just literally wander off to another country without worry of starvation, right here, right now. Sure, you'll live like a homeless person, but you can achieve world travel if you really want to.

But that's not really a comfortable option though, (Cept if desperate) which is why having one or more online jobs is essential. Good, well paying ones. In third world countries, for example, everything is much cheaper and exotic. You can cheap-rent anywhere temporarily, and live like a king with what you save in bills, fuel, and all the rest.

Or invest in gear like I do, and tent in a mountain or the beach, while cycling foreign countrysides. But those are just examples.

Certainly better than being holed in on a house, enslaved by routine, day after day... Where entertainment replaces what life should be, so you can cope with the dullness of it all. Sad.

Think of it in a logical matter. If your goal is to travel indefinitely, why not plan to acquire a location independent job which allows the most freedom, and can be operated remotely via the net? Plan it since high school, or college. Big factors in deciding what to study; will it allow me to travel? This is new to the times though, which is why you don't hear about it much. Virtually impossible to do reliably, 20 years ago.

Edited February 16, 2015 by Vagrant

[Skynstein]

What, you want to stay in hotels and hostels every day, and dine out just as much? You hear this all the time.

Yes. I admit this world is not ideal for wandering.

But there's always a way. Many ways to go about it, in fact. Cheapest of which are squatting and dumpster diving, and for transport, hitch-hiking. Which even a fully broke anyone could achieve easily, if they have arms and legs at least.

Indeed, knowing the essentials actually means you can just literally wander off to another country without worry of starvation, right here, right now. Sure, you'll live like a homeless person, but you can achieve world travel if you really want to.

But that's not really a comfortable option though, (Cept if desperate) which is why having one or more online jobs is essential. Good, well paying ones. In third world countries, for example, everything is much cheaper and exotic. You can cheap-rent anywhere temporarily, and live like a king with what you save in bills, fuel, and all the rest.

Or invest in gear like I do, and tent in a mountain or the beach, while cycling foreign countrysides. But those are just examples.

Certainly better than being holed in on a house, enslaved by routine, day after day... Where entertainment replaces what life should be, so you can cope with the dullness of it all. Sad.

Think of it in a logical matter. If your goal is to travel indefinitely, why not plan to acquire a location independent job which allows the most freedom, and can be operated remotely via the net? Plan it since high school, or college. Big factors in deciding what to study; will it allow me to travel? This is new to the times though, which is why you don't hear about it much. Virtually impossible to do reliably, 20 years ago.

If you try to "hitchhike" here in South America there's a big chance it'll end very badly. Certain environments are hostile to tourists.

Also, what if I want to visit Europe, but I'm trapped in South America? You need a plane ticket for that. :P

I admit the idea of traveling around the world is very tempting, and I'm already 27 so I may need to do it soon. I have the resources to do it, too. I probably just need that little push, but being a lonely person makes everything that little bit harder.

Only feasible "job" I can imagine while traveling around is stuff like journalism where you can either write stories or take pictures, but you'd fool yourself if you think it would allow you complete freedom, even as a freelancer, as whoever decides which stories are interesting is the contractor, not the journalist.

Edited February 16, 2015 by Cerberus87

[Vagrant]

If you try to "hitchhike" here in South America there's a big chance it'll end very badly. Certain environments are hostile to tourists.

Also, what if I want to visit Europe, but I'm trapped in South America? You need a plane ticket for that. :P

I admit the idea of traveling around the world is very tempting, and I'm already 27 so I may need to do it soon. I have the resources to do it, too. I probably just need that little push, but being a lonely person makes everything that little bit harder.

Only feasible "job" I can imagine while traveling around is stuff like journalism where you can either write stories or take pictures, but you'd fool yourself if you think it would allow you complete freedom, even as a freelancer, as whoever decides which stories are interesting is the contractor, not the journalist.

Not only in South America, I guarantee you that, haha. Me and my fiancee got followed and almost got mugged twice, In Algeciras and Tangier... Only because a bus dropped us off at over midnight in a new unexplored town. We'd be crazy to make mistakes like that again.

Pros and cons; third world countries are dangerous, but cheaper to rent = safety. First world countries, like most of Europe, are safer to pitch a tent, but expensive to rent.

I do professional freelance game dev and digital art on a Cintiq Companion. Gives me enough to support me and my girlfriend for constant travelling, and she doesn't even work. And we've been doing it for two years now, non stop. It's great, and I can't see myself "going back to the grind" any time soon. (It's easier if you're on your own, though. That's less mouths to feed.)

I've heard of lawyers taking their trade on the go, though. And many web design people, and of course, journalists... I'm sure there's many other ways available, to be discovered with some cunning thinking. The biggest problem is getting a reliable job, instead of just a part time labor.

Writing is another one, but that one's hard to pull off, unless you're famous.

Edited February 16, 2015 by Vagrant

[eclipse]

But there's always a way. Many ways to go about it, in fact. Cheapest of which are squatting and dumpster diving, and for transport, hitch-hiking. Which even a fully broke anyone could achieve easily, if they have arms and legs at least.

Indeed, knowing the essentials actually means you can just literally wander off to another country without worry of starvation, right here, right now. Sure, you'll live like a homeless person, but you can achieve world travel if you really want to.

Alright, couple of problems here:

- You're assuming everyone's at perfect health. Doing half of these suggestions will kill me, in a very literal sense. And it will be slowly and painfully.

- Hitch-hiking can also end very badly. Besides the obvious risk, the person giving you the lift has to trust that you're not out to kill/rob THEM.

This is NOT for everyone - it's a really big risk, and I'd advise a LOT of research before planning this. Last thing you'd want is to end up on the wrong end of certain police forces. I don't mind suggestions that have some risk, but when the potential to ruin/end another's life is elevated (which this topic is veering off towards), caution is necessary.

[Skynstein]

This is NOT for everyone - it's a really big risk, and I'd advise a LOT of research before planning this. Last thing you'd want is to end up on the wrong end of certain police forces. I don't mind suggestions that have some risk, but when the potential to ruin/end another's life is elevated (which this topic is veering off towards), caution is necessary.

That's actually true. If you're white, it's much easier. Try hitchhiking as an Arab in the West with all the terrorist scare going on. :P Getting into certain countries would be MUCH harder.

[Walker]

This is my duty as a Blue Lantern to say:

Have Faith. Not faith, but Faith.

And if you don't have it, try finding some.

[MacLovin]

do fulfilling things.

like tutor kids at an orphanage.