The Midlife crisis thread?
Out of context: Reply #45
- Started
- Last post
- 96 Responses
- allthethings7
57. Close enough to retirement to want it five years ago. Haven't been fulfilled in a job since being downsized in 2013. Had a decent run working from home but it wasn't really sustainable. I found a job (took it mostly for the health insurance...a long story involving being run over with my girlfriend while in a crosswalk, which revealed thyroid cancer, your classic bad news/good news situation), but it is deeply unsatisfying. A waste of time, actually, which is the only thing we have of value, really.
Not having a midlife crisis. Didn't have one after divorce 10 years ago, either. When I feel I'm in a crisis it's more a living crisis, the one that keeps us working in stupid jobs instead of just living. I do feel the Internet thing is real. I don't feel motivated as I once did. Getting home from this job makes me want a pint and some entertainment, rather than striving for things. I used to have a sidelight as a local newspaper columnist, but just don't care enough to do it (assuming people would give me a platform at this point. I kind of live for two nights of football a week, which I hope to be able to play until I'm 75.
I'm also completely disaffected by the state of US politics. I went to NL last winter and would dearly love to move there. Though a lot would stop me even if I could manage it...my kids live in the States, for one. Maybe retirement is best spent traveling around to spend time with old friends who I never get to see (1,000 miles away from virtually all of them).
The advice in here is all good. Do what you enjoy, spend time with people you love being around. Definitely live in the moment. When my girlfriend and I came to (I only had a gap of hours, hers was a couple of weeks), we felt much more profoundly how fragile our existence is. We were on our way to a pub after I'd scored a goal in my game (a rare thing) and was excitedly recounting it...it was such an ordinary evening, and then you wake up in a hospital bed and you realize that your kids were *that close* to being orphaned. It doesn't make you want to put up with any bullshit, I can tell you that. Like this fucking job.