Whats The Point In Living?

[ForbiddenFruit]

I had my head in a book yesterday, studying for my finals come June, and something occured to me.

What's the fucking point of it all? Why do I even bother?

Before you go to Uni, it's about 12 years of going to school to learn little of value and tons of pointless shit that won't be of use on your University / college course or everyday life, and then when you DO go, you're learning X amount of subjects on your course, again not all of which is going to be necessary in your career (average higher level maths question: 'If an elderly woman is going on a train headed from Las Vegas to Chicago at 25 km/ph, and a man crosses the track holding five apples in one hand and a banana in the other, what time is it?').

Life seems to boil down to this: 12 years of working to get a chance to go somewhere else for 4 years to work even more (can even be as many as 7 if you go for a long normal course and a postgrad to boot), then "Congratulations! Now work a 'real' job for 40-odd years making use of very little of what you studied for fifteen-plus years to accomplish a job you could have replaced some of those years with a couple years of specific useful training!" and then retirement for 20 'comfortable' years of cardigans and possibly senility and loneliness.

And the real kicker? It's not like this bullshit is some 'magic key' to happy land. Is picking the right course supposed to secure a perfect, high-paying job (even though other people are going to be higher paid because they had different interests to you) that you enjoy (of you who are employed, how many of you enjoy your damn jobs? That 40 year of the same thing going well for you?), a positive mentality and a life partner?

Bull. Fucking. Shit.

Working hard will secure me nothing but a damn college place and a job in journalism. That's all people are working their ass off for. And the ones who never tried, the underachievers, the ones who didn't give a shit, who hardly lifted a finger, or the ones who were just dumb? They can just as easily live a happier or better life.

To work hard as fuck for 15 years, to be rewarded with another 40 to go and no guarantee you will live a happy life, while the others who were lazy are the ones sitting pretty and living comfortably...I'd feel like the entire fucking world was laughing at me.

Now I think I understand why people drop out before they even reach college.

[TDL]

Life is not about work, its about what you do when you're not at work: Fun! The point in living is about having fun! Wear diapers, party all you can, buy and enjoy stuff, travel the world, get experiences!

You are going to work hard to do this, but its all worth it when you're standing in Paris and enjoying the sight from the eiffel tower!

[LuvsGurl]

Generation Y was raised with the promise College = Good job. That's just not the case anymore. There is too much competition for what jobs are available and few opportunities for advancement. New college grads are a dime a dozen right now, which makes that 4-year degree essentially worthless. My fiancee dropped out of college after two years because he saw it wasn't getting him anywhere. He concentrated on his job and 5 years later he is now running his own warehouse. I finished school, got my degree and am still working dead-end jobs for not much more than minimum wage while trying to pay off tens of thousands in student loans. I have considered going back to school, but that would only put us further into debt and still not guarantee employment for me afterwords. I too feel like I got the shaft somewhere along the way.

[peelover]

1-800-273-8255

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

Where did anyone ever get the idea that ANYTHING was, or should be GUARANTEED!??. The only thing that is guaranteed in this world is that if you think you are entitled to anykthing being guaranteed, you will get what you deserve.

"Get a life" means take care of yourself. Actually you do not get a life. You build one from your abilities and the things you find in the world. To start that process, the first thing you have to kick out the door is the idea that anything is or should be guaranteed. If you think something should be guaranteed, that means you think someone should guarantee it. When you rely on someone to take care of you, you get what they decide to give you and if you complain, then what you get is a cuff aside the ear for being a demanding brat. You live by their rules and at their whim

When you kick that idea out the door, you open the possibilities of having what you want in life if you undertake to go and get it. That requires effort which is the opposite of demanding things be guaranteed. In a free or even semi-free society, that opens the door for happiness. So stop crying and start trying. If you have enough intellect to complain, then you have enough to make it happen for you unless you're a clinical case, in which case, see a shrink.

[D_Rainger]

One of my primary goals of life has been to work as little as possible and have time to enjoy myself. Happiness doesn't come from money. Happiness doesn't come from sex. Happiness doesn't come from power. These are the three areas that are snares for most people. Live a quiet life and mind your own business. Enjoy your family and be moderate in everything.

-DR

[Rockies Fan in Diapers]

Where did anyone ever get the idea that ANYTHING was, or should be GUARANTEED!??.

You hit the nail on the head with this statement. In fact, not even life itself is guaranteed to any of us. We are as a society have too much emphasis on a sense of Entitlement. The Bottom Line is, We are entitled to Absolutely Nothing! Whatever happens or whatever you get, it is because you earned it, not because it got handed to you on a Silver Platter, or because it was guaranteed.

Rockies Fan. Go Rockies in 2011!

[ForbiddenFruit]

Rockies Fan in Diapers:

Whatever happens or whatever you get, it is because you earned it

Where did anyone ever get the idea that ANYTHING was, or should be GUARANTEED!??. The only thing that is guaranteed in this world is that if you think you are entitled to anykthing being guaranteed, you will get what you deserve.

I think I should have been a bit clearer. I don't think that a secure life is guaranteed, at all. Yes, you have to work for it, to reap what you sow.

My point is, even if you DO put the work in, there's no guarantee there that you will be rewarded, while some lucky sod who hardly lifted a finger attains the same (if not a better) standard of living.

[bbgirlmichelle]

I tried to go to college after high school but I couldn't get the courses I wanted, at the time I had 3 part time and 1 fulltime job so I could only do one or two courses at a time. After that first try to get in I never tried again, I just worked and had fun. After I was promoted to supervisor at the warehouse job, the full time one, I dropped the other three. At that point by working really hard, learning everything I could and being responsible for my shift I went from earning $8/hour to $16/hour. Part of that responsibility eventually included me having to fire a good friend of mine that decided that he could use our friendship and slack off while working, very hard to do, but it had to be done.

After 5 years at that job our whole shift was laid off, I found a government program that allowed me to go for training, I took a 6 month course that got me a certification in the computer field (MCSE), within days after that I was hired at a startup .com (back in 1999). I took a pay cut from my warehouse job going from $16/hour to $11/hour to start and had three job titles: Technical Support, Web Design and Network Administrator. I worked at that job for 11 years and went from that $11/hour to over $40/hour from my original position to my last title which was Lead Technical Architect, I designed software systems, created and managed applications and databases. My career growth was obtained from working hard and learning things that needed to be done. When I noticed something that needed to be done or something that could be improved I would learn it on my own. I worked many 60+ hour weeks plus time I spent at home learning new subjects that would help me at my job and make me more valuable. I made myself the go-to person, if someone wanted help with anything they would always come to me.

I now work for myself, I'm an independent contractor with one main client and my husband and I are working on starting a business developing iPhone applications and we make even more money now and have be benefit of working from home (or wherever we have an internet connection).

The reason I wrote all of this is not to discount a college or university degree, but to show that a good life is possible without having a degree. Capitalist society rewards those that work hard, expand themselves and do something that is needed at the time. If you don't think college/uni for you, then maybe take a break find a job somewhere that you can grow and take advantage of it. If school is something you find you want in the future then go for it. I know many people that did it later in life, you can always do a degree in night school. I even know people that studied in their own time at their own pace and then just challenged the exams to get their degree, with more and more universities putting their course content online and in iTunes this is becoming much easier to do if you can learn that way.

*hugs*

Michelle

[Loveable_guy]

Without a college degree you will not see the inside of a fortune 500 company and to be honest with you that’s where the really good jobs are. How do I know? I was employed by a fortune 100 company for fifteen years, worked my way up the ladder. Then in 2008 left for a what looked like a better offer.

Since that time many companies have rewritten their policies so that nothing less than a degreed person will be hired and that includes former employees. Of course the degree can be in balloon animals but you must have a degree to go anywhere in big business.

Stay in college and put up with. You’ll be glad you did later! Trust me I know.

[beallucanb]

If you don't want to finish school and take a regular job go ahead, no one is pushing you into it.

What have you got to look forward to if you do, I will tell you what, if you want to get up every morning dive walk or crawl to work whichever you choose, you an look forward to 40 some years of doing the same thing over and over again.

The choice is yours, put in some hard work now for more money and a better life later on, or just say screw it and just about make it for the rest of you life.

I would rather stay in school and have a chance at making it big rather than just about making it.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

Getting back to the title of "Where's the point to living?"

There is none

Now, that can be either good or bad, depending on you

If there were a "point", that is a pre-determined future, then why bother living? It would not matter

If there is none then you start out with a clean slate, able to make your own point to living

Personally, I am glad that there is no point to living.

[abisme]

in a sense its to do, whatever gets done

but its not worth a shit, if your not having fun

[sarah_ab]

if you do not enjoy school and teh traditional classroom setting than perhaps there IS no point to go on to college for you personally.

but remember... not everything has to have a point... sometimes just going through it is enough.

I myself absolutely LOVE learning. If i'm not taking classes i'm teaching myself things, for me going to univ has a dual purpose. 1. it will allow me the degree i need, the knowledge and skills i need, to succeed in the profession i want to do. and 2. its just another way i get to engage in one of my favourite activities... learning for learning's sake.

not everyone enjoys learning, and not everyone enjoys learning in a classroom environment...

alsdo, it can be debated until we are blue in the face... however in todays western society many jobs require at LEAST a high school education, and many better paying jobs require at least a college degree. or some form of apprenticeship program where you do have to take a test to get licensed..

i went to kindergarten thru 12th grade. then took me 9 years to get my undergraduate degree, i was forced to leave college for a year and a half and then i moved across the country.... but i still went back to college. When i graduated this last may, 9 years after i first started my undergraduate studies, it did immediately lead to a great job. I went from making less than 20K a year, to making 44K a year. I went form cleaning toilets to sitting at a desk. Did all of this bring me automatic happiness? course not, because i was ALREADY happy before i got this new job, before i graduated.

the key is to be happy with who you are, and understand why you are making the choices you are, did i WANT to be cleaning toilets? no it was awful, but why was I happy? because i was doing what had to be done to get my degree.

if you don't want to get a degree than don't. But try and take pleasure in all you do in life... whether it be sitting in a classroom or cleaning up at 18 year old college freshman....

[LuvsGurl]

Without a college degree you will not see the inside of a fortune 500 company and to be honest with you that’s where the really good jobs are.

Only 1% of American workers will see the inside of a Fortune 500 company anyways. Don't act like having a degree is going to make that much of a difference.

[jeremy12312]

Some people will wholly dismiss college as worthless because they didn't go and everything turned out rosy for them. And some people win the lottery, too.

Many of the most successful people in the world never attended or finished college, but you only hear about them via a confirmation bias. You never hear of the scores of folks who don't finish college and then do nothing with their lives. Everything in life is luck, but you can improve your chances with preparation.

Would it work out for you to not finish college? Maybe, but you'll have to work just as hard as you would have in college to position yourself to be successful.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

College is a tool. As such you must learn how to use it. Anyone who tells you that without it you are garbage is a fool or evel

I am of the opinon that nobody should be allowed there until they have reached age 21, which means a sufficient level of development of the physical mental equipment, and until they have worked for 4 years, Which means an understanding of the world sufficient to resist the lunacy that comes out of the universities, primarily in political economics. In fact, my econ instructor told the class theat Economics has an abysmal record of prediction.

Of the latter I can explain

The CPI is based on "durable goods", sepecially housing and specifically excluding food and energy:

1. Bernoulli's Theorem states "The more cases there are, the closer the observed probability approaches the actual probability. finally meeting at Infinity". Translated into Real World-speak. The more something is done, the more it looks like the real world. Well durable goods transactions occur far less than "market basket" transactions, so which has more to say about the actual state of things?

2. The (relatively) steep price increases in food and fuel have gone unreported since they are specifically excluded: How convenient!!!!!

3. With regard to housing; three words "demographics, aging population". Older persons; read "empty nesters" SELL property . Younger to middle aged tend to bey. The "age pyramid" of the 1960's is now almost upside down. This demographic will put more homes on the market with fewer buyers than 30 years ago. This will drive down prices if market forces are let to work

Try and find that in the economic model in use. But they are honorable men" So are they all; all honorable men.

This kind of thing is what George Wallace was talking about when he talked about "pseudo-intellectuals" and "pointy-headed intellectuals who can't park a bycicle straight", and what prompted the generation before mine to say "the smarter they get, the dumber they are"

College is an amplifier: it makes a smart person smarter and a fool a bigger fool Look up the derivation of "sophomore"

[bbgirlmichelle]

College is a tool. As such you must learn how to use it. Anyone who tells you that without it you are garbage is a fool or evel

I agree with you on this. I know many people that make very good livings with no college degree, I know people that have worked hard in business, never finished college or even started it and make hundreds of thousands a year. I also know many people with college and university degrees that for years after can't find a job in the industry their degree is in. You can even work in some jobs doing the same work as someone with a degree and earn less, as soon as you complete your degree get an instant increase in your salary.

The key is what you want to do with your life, what industry do you want to work in? Do you want to be a physicist, doctor, astronaut? For that you'll need a degree. Do you want to run your own business? Depending on what kind of business you can probably get away without one. Do you want to drive a truck for a living? No degree needed there, find the right company and union and you can easily make $40/hour. I have one friend that constantly breaks $100k/year driving a hasmat truck and he has no college or university.

[Lost_Little_Sarah]

Even though a truck driver may not need a degree, depending upon what kind of trucks they are driving they do have to get certain endorsements and licenses in order to drive.

[bbgirlmichelle]

Even though a truck driver may not need a degree, depending upon what kind of trucks they are driving they do have to get certain endorsements and licenses in order to drive.

True, a CDL will probably take 6 weeks of full time school, that a huge difference over 4 years for a degree.

[PIzzazz]

Keep your head up bro.

While learning about the physics of a train traveling 25 km/h from Las Vegas to Chicago might seem inane, it sets the stage for a greater understanding of the world you live in -- and the universe outside it. For instance, what if an asteroid were hurtling at the Earth at the rate of 350 km/sec, and it was 9.1 billion km away? If you're the only person on Earth who knew how much time the government had to get its sh*t together and blow the damn thing up with a crazy space laser, you'd feel pretty damn cool about yourself, right?

Also, journalism allows for ample opportunity to continue this learning process. In that profession, more than many others, there's always something new and exciting to learn every day for the rest of your life -- if you go out seeking it.

[AndB]

I've felt the same way as the original poster. I think it's the rare person that finds a lot of meaning in their job. You've got to have one, as it's nice to be able to live somewhere, eat, and of course buy diapers! Other than that -- FUCK IT! It's money. Easy come, easy go.

The best thing about college is that you have 4 more years to goof off. I majored in English because my philosophy was that I had 55 years of work ahead of me, I'm going to study something fun.

Look, I've got music and my family. Work is work. It's a tool to get what I actually want.

[Dill_Pickle]

I've felt the same way as the original poster. I think it's the rare person that finds a lot of meaning in their job. You've got to have one, as it's nice to be able to live somewhere, eat, and of course buy diapers! Other than that -- FUCK IT! It's money. Easy come, easy go.

The best thing about college is that you have 4 more years to goof off. I majored in English because my philosophy was that I had 55 years of work ahead of me, I'm going to study something fun.

Look, I've got music and my family. Work is work. It's a tool to get what I actually want.

There's a chinese saying here that comes to mind, ending in:

If you would be happy for a lifetime, love your work.

....so the job in college is to find out what kind of work you love, and get yourself paid to do it.

[bignappybo]

It realy is all worth it in the end honest

[toddmdl]

Where did anyone ever get the idea that ANYTHING was, or should be GUARANTEED!??. The only thing that is guaranteed in this world is that if you think you are entitled to anykthing being guaranteed, you will get what you deserve.

"Get a life" means take care of yourself. Actually you do not get a life. You build one from your abilities and the things you find in the world. To start that process, the first thing you have to kick out the door is the idea that anything is or should be guaranteed. If you think something should be guaranteed, that means you think someone should guarantee it. When you rely on someone to take care of you, you get what they decide to give you and if you complain, then what you get is a cuff aside the ear for being a demanding brat. You live by their rules and at their whim

When you kick that idea out the door, you open the possibilities of having what you want in life if you undertake to go and get it. That requires effort which is the opposite of demanding things be guaranteed. In a free or even semi-free society, that opens the door for happiness. So stop crying and start trying. If you have enough intellect to complain, then you have enough to make it happen for you unless you're a clinical case, in which case, see a shrink.

As much as this kind of makes me mad since I used to have feelings exactly like the OP, I have accepted the fact that this statement is 100% true. I have found in smaller things that when you struggle through something and you end up actually accomplishing something you feel so much better about yourself.