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Do you plan on/do you live a conventional life?

post #1 of 75
8/25/10 at 2:49am
Thread Starter 
By conventional life I mean, growing up in a good family, going to school, studying, partying a bit while keeping your objectives in mind, graduating from college and then getting a job or going to grad school to get a potentially better job, then marry some girl, have one and a half children, paying off your mortgage and shit.

Or do you want to/did you live life day by day, following your dreams, making a bunch of concessions that you won't regret because at you're a point in which you would never have been if you just let yourself go with the flow?

Right now I'm in path number one and I think I'm pretty happy with it. I'm a young student with good parents who are well off financially and don't need to worry about my tuition or anything else. I go to a top 20 university and spend a lot of money on clothes and stuff. I'm pretty happy with the life I live but somehow I sort of feel guilty for it all. Feels like I'm missing out on something but I don't quite know what it is.

There's no point really to these threads, just share your stories if you feel like it, it may open a few people's eyes I guess. To me I'm just a materialistic asshole, but I've always been harsh to myself. I'm pretty sure I am a materialistic asshole. Fuck, I wish I didn't think too much. Shit makes me depressed. I feel like I'm Holden Caulfield.
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post #2 of 75
8/25/10 at 3:30am
I graduated from UC Berkeley. I'm now working on a campaign. I'm salaried, but if you calculate my salary/hour I would be somewhere in the 4-5 dollars an hour range (2.5k a month at 12-14 hours a day, 7 days a week).

Everyday I think about finally taking the LSAT and tucking myself behind the ivory tower at Harvard law or something. My job formally ends in mid-November, and I really have not made up my mind. Attending law school would definitely make things easier--and I plan to do so at some point--but this kind of bottom-level work really has a value of its own that I don't think will be available with a JD from a T1 law school.

To be honest, I'm sort of living out a childhood/high school pipe-dream to work in politics. Whether or not this experience will keep me here is one thing, but the experience (i.e., being treated like shit, working 100 hour work weeks, et cetera) will certainly stay with me throughout my career as my first "real" job. One thing is for sure, though; I'm sure my next job will seem easy compared to the stamina needed for this shit now.

I guess the conventional path would be to attend some prestigious law school and find some capable SO to marry in the distant future. For now, though, convention seems so far off it's not even worth thinking about (in any serious manner). Wait, what was your question, again? I'm pretty drunk. 14 hour work days will make an alcoholic out of anyone.
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post #3 of 75
8/25/10 at 3:52am
no such thing. everyone has their struggles, either in the past or coming down the pipeline. some are more successful at confronting them than others.
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post #4 of 75
8/25/10 at 4:10am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ektaylor View Post
I graduated with a 3.86 from UC Berkeley. I'm now working on a campaign. I'm salaried, but if you calculate my salary/hour I would be somewhere in the 4-5 dollars an hour range (2.5k a month at 12-14 hours a day, 7 days a week).

Everyday I think about finally taking the LSAT and tucking myself behind the ivory tower at Harvard law or something. My job formally ends in mid-November, and I really have not made up my mind. Attending law school would definitely make things easier--and I plan to do so at some point--but this kind of bottom-level work really has a value of its own that I don't think will be available with a JD from a T1 law school.

To be honest, I'm sort of living out a childhood/high school pipe-dream to work in politics. Whether or not this experience will keep me here is one thing, but the experience (i.e., being treated like shit, working 100 hour work weeks, et cetera) will certainly stay with me throughout my career as my first "real" job. One thing is for sure, though; I'm sure my next job will seem easy compared to the stamina needed for this shit now.

I guess the conventional path would be to attend some prestigious law school and find some capable SO to marry in the distant future. For now, though, convention seems so far off it's not even worth thinking about (in any serious manner). Wait, what was your question, again? I'm pretty drunk. 14 hour work days will make an alcoholic out of anyone.
Good post. I'm not old enough to work right now but I see my options as either working my ass off with a Hitlerian boss (or doing my own research if I'm lucky and constantly being under pressure) or going for med school. Choice is a bit hard to make since I love the perspective that I could be doing some meaningful research and possibly changing something in the science microcosm (and why not the world?), but I just can't take the fact that outside of my job, I'll probably hate my life.
Quote:
Originally Posted by aizan View Post
no such thing. everyone has their struggles, either in the past or coming down the pipeline. some are more successful at confronting them than others.
I think you're missing the point. We all had a choice to do at some moment. Taking the risk to do something more meaningful or choosing some comfort, security and doing the same thing that millions of people did before us.
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post #5 of 75
8/25/10 at 6:10am
the OP made it seem like a choice to grow up in a good family, etc. as far as choosing to live a "normal life", life is unexpected. you can try to plan things but sometimes stuff is out of your control.
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post #6 of 75
8/25/10 at 6:15am
Kind of late for that, although by some measures I do have what would appear to be a very conventional life.
But no, not at all.
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post #7 of 75
8/25/10 at 11:36am
I have had no struggles and live a pretty conventional life, minus having a family because that shit can wait for when I'm 33+.
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post #8 of 75
8/25/10 at 11:38am
My life is pretty fucking far from conventional.
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post #9 of 75
8/25/10 at 11:40am
My life was pretty unconventional until my late 20s. Now it's pretty normal, though I like to pretend I'm somehow less conventional than the normal people, even if it's not true.

I don't plan on continuing to lead a conventional life, but I never planned to be conventional in the first place, so the reality is that I have no idea if things will change.
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post #10 of 75
8/25/10 at 1:08pm
I'm making it up as I go along. But my long term plans include: not having children and moving to another country. Short term is basically just saving money to I can move comfortably.
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post #11 of 75
8/25/10 at 1:21pm
I'm basically in the same situation as ektaylor.
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post #12 of 75
8/25/10 at 1:59pm
I just got my B.A. and I am looking for work in finance and have intentions to commit to a relationship. It seems that I have pretty convential aspirations.
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post #13 of 75
8/25/10 at 2:12pm
Most of it has seemed conventional to me ... although I doubt most others would see it that way.
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post #14 of 75
8/25/10 at 3:28pm
Something tells me our definition of conventional is far different than what most of the country considers conventional.
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post #15 of 75
8/25/10 at 3:38pm
Yes and No. It's a constant learning process, and the definitions of conventional vs. unconventional are absurd anyway.
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