ugh
Friend: Seriously, I think I’m going to give myself a disease. That way I can get a few days off work.
Me: It’s that serious?
Friend: Nothing big. Just something that requires me to have a procedure. Any ideas?
Me: *blinks twice* (silence)
That was a real conversation with a good friend a few weeks ago. She is fed up with work and she’s not the only person in my life who is. Any given day I can check my facebook homepage, my twitter timeline, my Gchat conversations and someone is complaining about their jobs.
“ I wonder why they don’t fire me so I can collect unemployment?”
“ I should just quit and move back with my parents”
“ I’m bored. I’ve learned everything I need to learn here, I need to move on.”
To be honest, sometimes I feel this way too. Some days I sit at my desk and my imagination runs wild. I have fantasies of becoming a lady who luncheons with my friend Mai. We make up elaborate fantasies of meeting up for lunch and discussing our charities while our tiny puppies in our purses bark at strangers on the sidewalk. Like a Kardashian or one of those Real Housewives who aren’t really married on Bravo.
Except, I can’t imagine enjoying a life of lunching and strolling around Manhattan with my tiny puppy. For one, I am terrified of dogs. I’m that person, who crosses the street if I see one coming my way (Pit-bull, Chihuahua, Scooby Doo, I don’t care I’m running). For B, I would get bored and would want to do something more. That’s exactly what I think is happening with all of us in our twenties who would go as far as to fake an illness just to get out of work*.
It’s the collective A.D.D. that makes us want more and the myth that we should all have it together by thirty. It’s either get married, be successful at the one career you chose or better yet have both. We get discouraged if we’re not living that dream. We get scared that if we don’t have it all figured out by a certain age then life ends and we can’t try.
I say let’s stop coming up with schemes and let’s start trying out different things. I get it, we all have responsibilities but we can’t just remain stagnant in something that makes us unhappy. Hate your job? Find something else to do. Have a talent you want the world to know about? Nurture it and find a way to make the everyone pay attention. Don’t know what you want? Make a list and start trying new things. Regardless of age or everyone else’s expectations.
I could never be just a housewife but I also refuse to stay where I’m unhappy.
Do you feel the same way my friends do? What are you going to do about it?
* My friend the other day sent me a text from an Emergency Room. Why? Cause she would have rather gone to the emergency room than stay at her job. An IV, Benadryl, and a Catscan later the diagnosis was “work is giving you stress”. My response: Duh.
the Ella project 