While I understand this is probably venting, I have some thoughts I wish to share.
If you don’t want a career, you want to craft, maybe look into the trades. I’ve started working as an elevator mechanic recently and, holy shit it’s changed my life.
Like, seriously. While the work is tiring, it’s deeply satisfying too. To me, very similar to getting a pattern in crochet or sewing figured out. It involves using your hands, using your brain in a similar way crafting does, and it can also pay incredibly well (meaning you can use your left over pay from making things in your day job to making things just cause you want to with your evenings and weekends).
With fewer and fewer people going into trades, there’s more and more demand, making it easier to get in. My province is currently paying eligible students to become trade workers, so you can see if you have a similar program where you live. (if there are any Quebecers here interested, check out Operation Main D'oeuvre and call your local Emploi Québec office for information).
And for Mentally ill people, I’ve found construction insanely helpful for managing my conditions. Like, regular exercice helps the management of so many conditions, right? But I’ve always hated exercise for the sake of exercise. But now my work has me moving every day, making my depression and ADHD way easier to manage. Nothing like beating a recalcitrant rail support into place to help work off the nervous energy creates by anxiety either. I’ve been struggling with my mental health for well over a decade and I do not have words to describe how good it feels to wake up and have no dread about the work I have to do today. I might be tired and grumpy, but even then, there’s no soul crushing dread.
I’ve also found it empowering and it helps me with my crafting (it teaches precision and gives you a really good eye for measurements, depending on the trade). It gives you financial power as well as power over your space (I’ve changed all the switches in my apartment for dimmers, easy peasy).
So yeah, TLDR, don’t want a career, want to craft? Maybe manual trades are the route for you. I know they were for me
Computer repair was easily the best most fulfilling work I ever did. Just me and a little puzzle I knew how to solve.
if you have autism please look into welding. you get earplugs and gloves and a cozy helmet. you do the same shit the same way every day. you are surrounded by the weirdest and most dysfunctional men ever invented and you don’t have to respect any of them. you go to your little horse stall and glue bits together until it’s time to go home. it’s exhausting and sometimes painful work but i have worked retail and i have sucked dick for money and i can say with my whole chest that welding is significantly less stressful in terms of time, effort, pain, and dealing-with-people.
if you have ADHD i do have to warn you that welding gets boring after awhile and you are discouraged from making little bugs out of scraps. you can do it anyway. but you have to hide them from your boss.
Can confirm this last bit as the son of a welder.
My dad does cool, creative 💩, after doing commissions, in his free time & feeding stray cats that wander into his workshop, & his creativity from imagining stuff in physical metal, from an artist scribbling on paper, is just amazing, all the way to finding out he created a shiv from scrap metal, just for fun.
some time ago i introduced the phrase “food pact” to my friends as a shorthand for “i’ll go make and eat food if you also make and eat food” and ever since then ive just started incorporating more pacts into my life. stay hydrated pact. stretch break pact. stop doomscrolling and go to bed pact. we need to bring this back in vogue more people should be making pacts imo
the best part of this is when you ask “who wants to do a shower pact” and you get a half dozen friends all rolling up saying “the pact is sealed”. faustian behavior
When the author describes a character’s appearance way too late and you have to quickly redesign the image you already have for them in your head:
This is why if you want people to know your character has long raven-black hair with red streaks and eyes like limpid tears, you need to make sure you say so in your first paragraph. Christ. Imagine someone thinking your character’s a prep.
Holy shit I’m dying.
That. That literally explains the opening paragraph of My Immortal I was making a joke but this person came out here with receipts holy hell
time for me to review The Whole Bible. ready? ok. to be honest my favorite part of the gospels is Mark 8.22-26, when Jesus spits in some nice blind man’s eyeballs and accidentally gives him cosmic consciousness. guy’s just like “may i have a teaspoon of visual response to stimulus” and jesus is like “oh sure” and gives him God Vision. fuckin…ayahuasca sight that perceives the interconnectedness of all life. “oh is that not normal? does everyone not have that? nuts. ok try these eyes. are those more regular? great. please don’t mention this”
When someone looks at abstract art and is like “ugh, I could’ve made that” it’s like…yeah? You think you could’ve? I like how those squiggles and splatters look, and how the colors play against each other, and I bet you could make something like that too. Wanna give it a try? I’ve got acrylics and tape and cardboard we could experiment on. It’s fun to break art and composition down to its bare essentials without worrying about things like representation or naturalism. Come on, let’s paint some lines.
“i could’ve made that” sure man, lets go. what colors are you drawn to. splash some blue on there, there you go, a splatter. it’s alright if it’s drippy, it’s just abstract. it’s easy. red? okay, cool- making a big smear? sure. paint however, man. use your hands. make a mess. sure, it’s got your handprint, and you were kinda mad at it before. but hey, i like the colors you picked. hey, might not be intentional, but the harsher strokes kinda gave way to softer colors- you had more fun here? cool. anyway, since you don’t like abstract art, you wanna toss this? or are you more attached to this raw expression of emotion than you thought you’d be? do you wanna go back to that art museum now?
ALT
