your life. How do you think folks in menial but respectable jobs e.g. "barsita" (fancy word for waitresses & waiters) and super market ckeckers lead reasonably happy lives.

Keep your eyes open for a different job and do not stay in a relationship that makes your life feel absurd. You are worth more than that. Lots of people make changes halfway or more through life.

I picked the wrong man and the wrong career. But thanks to divorce and college, things are looking up! Hugs to you, it is never ever too late to change course!

I know the what but I need the why!!! It's hard to give a fuck when you're surrounded by people who don't understand the need to give a fuck. I picked the wrong girl and she bailed, so I'm single. The right girl loves me, but the timing is never right, so I haven't dated in a long time. I am less independent and less financially secure than I've ever been in my adult life, and very pessimistic about my future prospects, given the state of the world. But what the fuck, who cares? Life sucks these days for everyone who's not a billionaire. Sorry for complaining! I have food to eat and a place to sleep, so I'm not doing so bad.

Same. Except not too optimistic on the tomorrow part.

...and don't feel alone in your misery, because I relate 100% and was just talking about this last night. I am pushing 40 and wasted the last dozen years in a "careeer" that offered me no financial stability, no future prospects, no means of building any sort of life for myself. I am now very poor, unemployed, paying rent I can't afford on a shitty East Van apartment, and scared, really scared for where I'm headed, and I am so tired, and every day just feels like a struggle to care anymore. Made some awful life decisions and now I have nothing to show for them. I wish I could offer you some optimism, so the best I can do on that part is assure you that you are not alone in feeling this way.

the WHY is up to you to find. If you think that you'll find the reason to live here on the Straight, you're dreaming. My first suggestion to you is to move to one of the outlying communities around Vancouver. The smaller "cities" have more of a caring, compassionate outlook than the hipsters turning Vancouver into a place where looking cool is everything. For me, volunteering was something that took me out of my grief. (I lost my wife of 37 years to breast cancer a while back, and I thought life was over.)

HELPING someone else is the BEST way to feel good about yourself.

...in feeling this way. There is a strong taste of collective nihilism and exhaustion in the air right now. Something is very wrong - economically, philosophically, {insert a zillion more adverbs here} - on a global level, and it's manifesting itself in different (but similar, if GS Confessions is any indication!) ways in all of us.

Like you have implied, I have accepted that it probably won't get better (in terms of job satisfaction and going beyond meeting basic food/shelter requirements). So I've decided to stop worrying about "career" (ugh) stuff, keep working joe jobs, and try to find the energy to seek out tiny thrills and fulfillment in my free time.

Speaking of which, I'm dreaming up some steamy co-worker fanfic right now. Spatulas and pumpkin spice are involved!

Best of everything to you - you sound like a smart dude, and I'm sure you'll sort out the things that remain in your power to do so.

Go for an evironmental arts degree and the girl you choose is a drug dealer?

You're right , ridiculous life decisions indeed

did you ever learn how to spell?