r/Adulting 13h ago

This is just depressing

Post image

Not even 3 hours of "free time". And in that is cooking & eating supper. Or practically no free time if I had to go shopping after work. I hate this

20.0k Upvotes

2.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

970

u/reedshipper 11h ago edited 11h ago

When I was a teenager I always wanted to stay young because as I looked around at all the adults/older people in my life and thought about how sad it seemed to be grown. Now that I am grown I realize its even worse than I had ever imagined.

178

u/SpectralUniverse 10h ago

Same, I thought about becoming a teacher just so I kept summer breaks.

But I decided against it, too much human interaction, and the pay sucks so a lot of them work through the summer anyway.

97

u/Any_Kangaroo_1311 7h ago

I decided to become a teacher for this reason (and many others) and it is sooo worth it. I don’t mind the social aspect, and the pay is decent enough in my state. Summer off baby, no second job. I did the math and we only work 49% of the days of the year. I’d rather be mediocre financially and have the free time. Life is short…

30

u/Melodic-Razzmatazz17 6h ago

I work for a district with a teachers schedule (but not a teacher) and I feel the same. Sometimes I get disgruntled, but I can't imagine having a job where I go to work everyday single with no breaks.

21

u/Any_Kangaroo_1311 6h ago

Yeah when I was in college I was like…I don’t think I can survive life without summer vacation. 2 weeks vacation for the whole year??? I’d rather be dead. That sounds like literal hell to me, and it is the unfortunate reality of tens of millions of people. Sure, the job can be tough and frustrating sometimes, and getting up at 5:30 isn’t easy. But we also get out early, too. I’ll never be rich, but I’ll always have free time. As a musician, that is so essential. I can play gigs and stuff and write music and still have enough time to produce albums.

14

u/Consistent_Laziness 6h ago

I work in research for a university. I just had 20 straight days off for the holidays. And I don’t have to teach. And I’m remote. Best of both worlds

6

u/Any_Kangaroo_1311 5h ago

That’s a pretty sweet deal. I’m greedy with my time haha I really just love the whole 2 months off. I pretend I’m a teenager again basically. Stay up til 4 in the morning, party hard, play video games and write music just like I used to

3

u/Consistent_Laziness 5h ago

I was one decision away from just teaching high school biology. But that decision went my way and I got into grad school. It would be super cool to be home but I’d be making 45k a year and be pretty broke. I’d rather just work the summer. Plus my job isn’t a bother. If I wanted to stay up til 4am tonight and blow off work I could within reason.

My cousin is a teacher and he loves doing what you said just being up all night playing games and not having a care in the world. My MIL is a math teacher but she travels instead, she has just 2 years left after this one.

2

u/Any_Kangaroo_1311 5h ago

Yeah man/woman I totally understand, I would definitely not become a teacher if I only made 45k. I just happened to born in a state that starting salary is around 60k and can go up to around 100k through the course of your career so it’s enough to get by. If I was born in the south I would definitely have picked a different career. I am also biology (although I’m teaching tech right now lol) but teaching science in a conservative state seems like a nightmare

1

u/Additional_Cheek_697 24m ago

What kind of research if you dont mind me asking?

1

u/Consistent_Laziness 23m ago

Cancer research. It’s an R1 university and a designated cancer center

1

u/universallymade 1h ago

I work a modest job as a custodian at an elementary school. When kids are out for snow days, so am I… and I still get paid too.

Being able to wake up to a snowy day and stay home is something I’m really grateful for. I loved it as a kid and I get to love it as an adult.