Sorry if this comes off as whining, was just hoping to find others who could relate. Sometimes I just get deeply, deeply depressed over the fact that we /must/ work. Does that make sense? In my mind I imagine a fantasy place where basic needs like food and shelter cost nothing, and everyone is free to develop their own personalities and hobbies at their own time.
Whenever I talk to certain friends, everyone loves to mention these promotions they're trying to earn, or how they're working endless nights to get their boss to notice them and so they can one day run their own business and be their own boss. I feel so stupid and inept because I can't relate to that at all. The only reason I ever want a promotion is so I can make more money to take care of myself, my pets, and my loved ones. If you paid me an extremely good salary to watch paint dry with an extremely boring and unacknowledged job title like 'Paint Watcher' or something I'd do it forever. But it feels like everyone around me keeps talking about their resumes, their job titles, the recognition from other people and the chance to (ugh) boss people around. I find that it's rarely about the money and the chance to live a comfortable life; it's always about climbing some weird social ladder. And it makes me so sad and so tired because I don't want that, I've never wanted that, and when I express that I just want enough to get by people call me unambitious.
I /am/ clinically depressed and going through a particularly bad episode rnow, so maybe that's why I feel the need to just type this all out. But I have felt this way ever since I started working. How do you keep going, knowing that you're 'doomed' to be in this sort of rat race forever? How do you deal with colleagues or bosses or family who pressure you to rise in status career-wise when you know all it will do is add more hours to your work day and cause you immense stress? I feel awful because I don't want to come off as the type of person who expects things to be handed to me out of, idk, entitlement? But at the same time, it gets sad thinking that most of our lives will be spent doing things we feel generally unpassionate about, just to live. 🫤