Quit Your Job
March 11, 2016 7:33 PM Subscribe
MeFites of a certain age, you're dissatisfied with your station in life. Otherwise, you wouldn't waste so much time clicking your blue bookmark. (Are you getting paid for reading this?)
And you're worried about Alzheimer's, and the fact that when it strikes, you'll be living in the post-Trump years, when The Old are deported to Mexico or Canada because it costs too much to waterboard them to death here at home.
If this is you, take heart! You only need to jettison your sustainable (if not sustaining) lifestyle and do The Next Thing! Surely your talents are more valuable to someone else, or even to you, yourself! You have nothing to lose but your inevitably deteriorating health insurance!
And you're worried about Alzheimer's, and the fact that when it strikes, you'll be living in the post-Trump years, when The Old are deported to Mexico or Canada because it costs too much to waterboard them to death here at home.
If this is you, take heart! You only need to jettison your sustainable (if not sustaining) lifestyle and do The Next Thing! Surely your talents are more valuable to someone else, or even to you, yourself! You have nothing to lose but your inevitably deteriorating health insurance!
This post was deleted for the following reason: This is kinda far to the And Here's My Take for framing on the front page, and arguing with folks in the thread isn't really how it's supposed to work. -- cortex
I started teaching when I was 57. I finished my masters when I was 60. I went down to teach on the Navajo Nation when I was 62, I hope to go back this fall. I like art and teaching art, not interested in retirement. Not interested in going slowly mad, waiting to die. I am watching people do this all around me. Besides, I have student loans to pay off.
posted by Oyéah at 8:00 PM on March 11, 2016 [10 favorites]
posted by Oyéah at 8:00 PM on March 11, 2016 [10 favorites]
Besides, I have student loans to pay off
Ouch. But you're too old for the "crushing student debt" cohort. You must have fucked up prodigiously to be as old as you are, with student loans. (I realized that being a teacher was the morally correct decision around 23 or 24, but there's a difference between knowing what to do, and doing it. Perhaps when I get to be your age, and if I don't get into med school...)
posted by spacewrench at 8:05 PM on March 11, 2016
Ouch. But you're too old for the "crushing student debt" cohort. You must have fucked up prodigiously to be as old as you are, with student loans. (I realized that being a teacher was the morally correct decision around 23 or 24, but there's a difference between knowing what to do, and doing it. Perhaps when I get to be your age, and if I don't get into med school...)
posted by spacewrench at 8:05 PM on March 11, 2016
Quit my job and do what? I'm a decent software engineer but there's not much that I can do that pays a living wage. I can't teach, write, sell or manage people and my body wouldn't stand up to any physical trade. I've become a pretty good art photographer but that'll never pay the mortgage. There's really a shockingly few things that a person can do these days that actually pays any reasonable money.
posted by octothorpe at 8:09 PM on March 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by octothorpe at 8:09 PM on March 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'm a mid level library worker with a BA in Fine Art, quit my job? And do what? Go back to restaurant work, or manual labor? Fu-nee . Also, Student Loans. Though I have to tell you spacewrench I had a lifetime of making bad decisions and getting that job in Electronics etc. Going to school & getting an art degree in my 40's wasn't one of them.
posted by evilDoug at 8:15 PM on March 11, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by evilDoug at 8:15 PM on March 11, 2016 [3 favorites]
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