Get Off Your Ass...

[♦ nivek ♦]

Preface this post with the caveat of that I've lived a good full life, more adventure and adrenaline pumped bullshit that I deserve. It has been good/bad/fun/fucked and every emotion in between. Cost me dearly, got and suffer with several tropical diseases whose remanants will be with me until I croak. Bones broken and tons of soft tissue injuries have left me pretty well fucked for "real.life".

 

Don't do this at Home.. Get off the goddamn sofa and get out there...

 

For those of you not inclined to go gov dot mil for adventure in foreign lands, ripping shit apart and killing the inhabitants for combat pay and all the ammo you can smoke, there are more peaceful routes to benefit from working overseas away from the uS.

 

For those in the Skilled Trades, or those wanting to join them, things from all aspects of construction are going on with uS companies paying hires at all levels of grade across the globe. One does not have to work in a combat zone doing this, however going to places where the "natives are restless" pays mo' bettah.

 

Right now in the electronics industry support for the gizmos used by the Troops and Contractors are at a premium. Code punchers, hands on board level repair, component builders are being paid megabuxx to contract a year and change overseas for support.

 

If you've got Medical skills documented one can sign up for several well paying behind the lines jobs with Industry for support and bandaid'ng work.

 

If you've got big stones and skillz, companies like Blackwater hire Paramed grade cats and skill them up as combat meds to go with the Teams outbound.

 

Teaching, Instruction skills at several levels are open worldwide for unattached folks willing to go to places that literally have dropped of face of Earth.

 

Opportunity exists where you look for Her

 

For you youngsters with good minds/bodies/skills/attitudes, it may be that it is time for you to head across the Borders and find out that the World out there is a damnned neat place to find yourself caught up in.

 

I've served my time in some places that are now fond memories, others are not so fond, might be nightmares, but the passport and visa are stamped.. OK, some aren't either way in, but WTF, it was kickass.

 

Get off your asses, find something that you can do, learn to do, get out of the McFuckJob box and go and take a goddamn chance.

I've learned skills and things that where I don't excel at any of them, there aren't many situations that can't be "McGuyvered".

 

I'm older and life has played some shitty cards for my hand in the Game.

Aint'a complaining. "Been There, Done That", fuck the T-shirt, I got out with skin on my teeth on some of them.

 

Dare..

 

To..

 

Get..

 

Off..

 

The..

 

Fucking..

 

Couch..

 

k, mean_old_man, L

[Guest bdp]

 

Kickass post, nivek - I wish somebody had told me this when I was 18. As a 43-year-old diabetic my options are limited now, although there is one dream I keep tucked away and if I don't make it out of the assembly plant I work in by January I might just act on it. In any case -

 

bdp

[Cracked]

I totally agree Nivek. I feel that more of our youth should expand their experiences in life but thinking back when I was younger I was soooooo stupid from being miss guided and stuck in my own world (on a local level ) that I was blind to wanting to see the rest of the world and experience it too. Recently I went to Nanning , China back in February 06 and I came back in March. That was the first time I had ever been out of this country. That was one great experience for me seeing how other cultures of people live. I can not wait to go back. I found my future wife there and I am currently trying to get her Visa. Anyway you are right one trip seems to have changed my life and I want to go out there and experience much much more.

[Vigile]

I of course agree with the others Kevin, a great and much needed post. I would like to add a few ideas that will hopefully compliment your words of wisdom.

 

I spent the first nine years after I graduated high school in a hellish grocery job that I hated with a white hot passion. During those years I felt so trapped, under appreciated, bored, under used, and utterly hopeless. It was no way to live the one life that I have, but I felt trapped and didn't know what to do about it.

 

I finally got off my ass and finished my college degree and the world became light and alive to me for the first time in many years. I had always been a dreamer, but I felt trapped by my own lack of imagination and inability to articulate what it was that was missing in my life before the university gave me the tools to examine myself. Reading many of the posts from some of the younger generation here I can see that most do not have the same problem I had; most of you are intelligent enough to have honed your own tools of self introspection and I'm quite impressed with the level of thought that many are able to express themselves at here on this board.

 

Nevertheless, hopefully my own experiences can help save some of you from years or even a lifetime of dissatisfaction with your particular circumstances. I echo what Kevin is saying. Get off your asses and take a huge bite out of life. Sacrifice and bum off the government to get an education in the areas you like, not what you think will pay the most. Be aggressive about getting internships and get them in areas that fascinate you, that challenge you, and that inspire you. Fuck that advertising internship if advertising is not the direction you want to go. Take that internship at the Museum of Art and scrimp and borrow so that you can afford to live in DC for the summer - it will be worth it.

 

Take advantage of your school's study abroad programs. Ok, in case you didn't hear me TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOUR SCHOOL'S STUDY ABROAD PROGRAMS! This is the greatest gift you can give yourself and it's worth whatever it cost you now and in the future.

 

After you are done, fuck the corporate wage slave shit if this is not in your temperament. Be creative and start your own business. There is virtually no way you are ever going to make serious money working for someone else. And in case you are idealistic like I was when I was young, yes, money does matter and if you make a lot of it you will be a lot happier in your life than you would be if you don't. You guys on this board are smart; smarter than 99% of the population. Use this intelligence to your advantage and allow yourselves to be creative. You will not come up with the solution in a day, but don't let that frustrate you. Figure out what you really want and take steps every day until you get there. Small steps taken consistently will let you achieve virtually anything, I promise you.

 

Working for other people is a nightmare, especially for those with high enough IQs to be dissatisfied with the status quo. Working for others will kill your spirit, you will spend your days complaining about the stupidity of their decisions, of their mistreatment of you, of the mundainess of it all. You guys have one life and only you can give it meaning. Most of us accept that this life is all there is so don't accept a shitty life just because you don't know what else to do. No one is going to do it for you, you have got to take action if you want to live the life you want.

 

Ok, I'm very sorry for preaching here. I feel this subject on an emotional level due to my own past so if this is not your trip just ignore me and consider it a rant. I hope it at least inspires a dream in someone though.

 

And again, thanks Kevin for starting a wonderful thread.

[godlessgrrl]

Dude. I'm with ya. Kickass post.

 

One of the motivations for figuring out the physical shit that's been dragging me down is being able to go out and see the world - or more of it than I've already seen, which is some so far.

 

I'm workin' on it.

[Dra_Mucd_Uha]

Nice. I really have no intention of staying in this town much longer - I look forward to getting away from the place of my childhood.

 

One thing I've noticed is a need for more people who understand how computers work. Those people who get paid to work on computers don't get paid bad at all in comparison to other jobs out there. Hopefully my first job (which I'm studying for now) will be in computer maintanence. My goal is to go into web design, which I enjoy (I have one website I made in my sig - although it's not completed).

 

I've also had a dream of being an author. Once I even wanted to be a full-time author, but I really don't see that happening. Hey, nothing wrong with dreaming. I do love to write though.

 

Take advantage of your school's study abroad programs. Ok, in case you didn't hear me TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOUR SCHOOL'S STUDY ABROAD PROGRAMS! This is the greatest gift you can give yourself and it's worth whatever it cost you now and in the future.

Yeah? I was offered one of those once, but never went. I will probably be offered another sometime in the future. I might just take your advice and go.

 

btw awesome post Nivek, and great reply Vigile_del_fuoco1. Very inspiriational for me at my young age.

[LosingMyReligion]

Well, I am working on finishing my degree, and I am going to become a teacher and a writer. Hopefully, the next J.K. Rowling...

I am too afraid of all that adventure stuff though...LOL. I'm sorta like Bilbo Baggins in that regard. haha. I'd like to travel, but with a well planned out itinerary.

 

Good post!

[The Sage Nabooru]

Heh......

 

Having depression is a vicious cycle. Nothing interests you, so you get depressed; you get depressed because nothing interests you.

 

My mother keeps telling me I need a hobby. Doing what? Is there any hobby out there that doesn't cost money? And what would I do with a hobby? To me in my state, hobbies are just another way of forgetting that life is ultimately meaningless and that I as a person as worthless.

[♦ nivek ♦]

Heh......

 

Having depression is a vicious cycle. Nothing interests you, so you get depressed; you get depressed because nothing interests you.

 

My mother keeps telling me I need a hobby. Doing what? Is there any hobby out there that doesn't cost money? And what would I do with a hobby? To me in my state, hobbies are just another way of forgetting that life is ultimately meaningless and that I as a person as worthless.

 

Sage..

 

Dunno your level of education, desires, skills, or wants.

 

However I am not talking about "Travel as a Hobby". Bent of my post/rant is for folks to get the hell out of their comfort zones, take a chance, and get out and find that their are other horizions to go explore.

 

That one can make a living, go to new places, and meet other people and not kill them is kickass fun.

 

Nothing by travel and work in places new to you, learning the polygot that gets you coffee, beer and bathroom, living in places that are different, meeting people who are as curious of you, will fill your life out.

 

Fuck "hobbies". Thats something we do when we have quiet alone time when nothing else fits or fills that hole in schedule.

 

I'm talking a total change in venue and vocation.

 

Do it before you get old and unable to do what you might dare to dream of.

 

k, dreamer and actor of a lot of his nightmares, broken a lotta horizons, L

[The Sage Nabooru]

Yeah. Good point.

 

I have to admit I have a paralyzing fear of driving oh, say, ten miles outside of my house's radius? A couple of bad incidents of getting lost and not being able to find my way back brought that about. And let me tell you, this is a pretty dehabilitating terror.

[Vigile]

Yeah. Good point.

 

I have to admit I have a paralyzing fear of driving oh, say, ten miles outside of my house's radius? A couple of bad incidents of getting lost and not being able to find my way back brought that about. And let me tell you, this is a pretty dehabilitating terror.

 

You're name doesn't happen to be Ignatius Reilly does it? Just teasing. You should read the book Confederacy of Dunces. The protaganist had this same fear. It's a hilarious book so perhaps the hilarity will help you overcome the fear. Just a thought.

[nirrti]

Nivek, you don't know how much I needed to hear this.

 

I've always wanted to experience so much more than survival, this small town....hell, even this country. It's not so much the size of this town but the small-mindedness that's so pervasive it becomes a part of you if you let it. I struggled these past few years to escape this kind of existance only to get kicked in the teeth everytime I've just about made it over the first hump. If it's not the company relocating or closing, it's getting laid off, 9/11, not having transportation to the job since a bus doesn't run that direction or having a nervous breakdown due to depression.

 

My grandmother, though I love her more than life, doesn't support me doing things that supposedly, black women aren't supposed to do like studying in another country or wanting something other than a 9-5 job. She's indoctrinated with left-over, generational fear from when black people were beaten or killed if they were "too uppity". So she subconsiously protects me by discouraging me from wanting too much. I told her that I had been accepted to a graduate school in Australia, thinking she would be proud of me. Of course, I couldn't go because of financial restraints but I was happy just to have been accepted. I might as well would've told her I wanted to be a stripper! Instead of being happy for me, she got all upset as if I'd done something horrible.

 

Lately, I've put my dreams on the back burner because I was just too wounded to try getting back up. I was afraid I had become one of the moles in that arcade game that get wacked everytime they try to get up. So I layed low and just tried to make it in a minimum wage job I know I have no business in with my level of education.

 

You have given me the permission I needed to grab on to what I truly want out of life and take risks. I don't know how the rest of my time here on Earth is going to be like but I can't let it continue on like this anymore.

[Ex-COG]

I've been thinking a lot lately about what I'm doing...and not doing. Typical American wage slave, working a job in a factory, when deep down I have a lot of creative juices churning. Thought about art and writing when I was younger, and did start college, but I had no solid goals, discipline, or know-how to carry out my dreams. Now, in my 40's, I'm thinking it's now or never. So I'm surfing around for ideas on: first, how to disengage from the consumer culture that enslaves me to the "security" of a 40+ hour week at the mercy of a company only interested in how much production can be squeezed out of me; second, what type of self-employment I can set up, in order to control my own life and still generate enough to live on; third, ways to pursue my interests and tie them in with my self-support, then I wouldn't be "working" for a living but "playing" for a living. Here's something I just found today: Why Work? Am searching out a lot more info, and ways to change my life. Wish I'd done it earlier, but wishing doesn't change it now, only action will.

[snookums]

Just a thought......I find time on the internet a huge waste of time. I tend to procrastinate - like I'm doing right now!

 

Yeah....I agree with Nivek- I've been a bit of a risk taker in my life..............its taken me to places I wouldn't have planned on. I like that - the sponstaneous get up and go.

So what!....sometimes it doesn't work out

 

One thing thou'......I don't think waiting for people to give 'you' permission is going to make it happen..or the approval from your loved ones......

 

I waited and waited....

and waited...

then got fookin' jacksick of bending over backwards so people could fuck me up the arse easier.

I finally learnt ....phew!

 

btw...I've had that driving thing from time to time - it goes away when I challenge it - force myself . I guess I've put myself in positions where I have no choice but to extend myself....I've travelled around the country.

[snookums]

 

 

btw...I've had that driving thing from time to time - it goes away when I challenge it - force myself . I guess I've put myself in positions where I have no choice but to extend myself....I've travelled around the country.

 

by... "That driving thing" do you mean that fear of driving too far from home?

 

It IS a rather big handicap, but you are right, when you repeatedly face a fear like that, it becomes less and less.

 

Yep...I've had it on and off for quite a long time..but now that I'm older I've gotten 'used to it'. It can be very debilitating - I know the 'terror' of it. For me...it wasn't so much the fear of getting lost etc...but of having a panic attack while in traffic. I also had a close friend who had the very same fear. We had one thing in common which kinda struck me as strange..I don't know if its relevant...but both our Father's didn't own a car or drive. (we lived close to transport and near the city).

 

Anyway...I think the problem with overcoming this 'fear' is that its not exactly irrational - like some of the other phobias. Its highly reasonable to 'fear' being squished or having a traffic accident - because of someone's mistake or inattention.

 

I've recently moved States....so not knowing the streets etc. has been a challenge - especially the way they put ONE WAY streets in very unexpected areas here. For me - getting to know the area and knowing that its okay to make mistakes....and realise that I can correct it if I've made a bad turn off etc.....but yeah......I kinda get that you'd feel much more comfy in your own close to home streets.

Keep adding to that...?

 

Even my partner...who drives around all day - from one end of town to the other....gets stressed out. Its more or less 'normal'. However... I think when it stops 'you' doing stuff is when its a problem,.....the damn driving fear isn't something I'm not ashamed of anymore...it can make you want to hide it from other's..

 

I have to keep on it thou' - always keep driving to 'challenging' places...once I stop or let myself become restricted (make excuses)...I'm a gonna..I have to start again.

*smiles*

Good luck! its a pain in the arse!