Tough Times. Need Advice.

I am 47 yrs old. All my life has been a struggle --- much like yours. Nothing seems to end well for me.

1.) I spent many years trying to get a useless college degree because I was hoping it would lead to a better paying job. It never did.

End result: Huge waste of time and money.

2.) I became a teacher and was required to take 1 year of night classes while I taught full time to fulfill my license requirements.

End result: 2 years later I was laid off and ended up losing all school credits. A waste of time and money.

3.) I thought truck driving was the answer because it is stable profession. I spent 6 months getting grants through WIA to go to trucking school for free. I graduated from trucking school with straight A's, zero debt, full endorsements, HAZMAT , Doubles/Triples and Tankers and a promising career. 1 month later I ended up with severe bronchitis from the diesel exhaust fumes.

End result: I got diagnosed with Sarcoidosis-- a rare lung disease(pulmonary fibrosis) that destroys lung tissue and I said bye bye to trucking. Waste of time and money.

4.)I decided to write and sell books. I spent 1 year and countless hours of research and writing books and they sell on Amazon.com.

End result. No profits. Waste of time.

5.) I wanted to learn to be a computer programmer so I could build a political website/blog from scratch. Place ads on it and make money. It took me one year to learn three computer languages-- HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I created the website and it is up and running but its not making money like I had hoped.

6.) My car gets stolen.

I sit in my tiny studio apartment, broke, drive a crappy car now and there is no jobs out there. I should have just gone to college in my youth to study something practical but I sucked at long term planning.

Everyone my age is making 40k a year plus a year while I work two dead end jobs that pay $10 an hour. These are high school wages.

I am a smart guy, graduated at top of my class in school, have a brain, and know how to use it. I am worth a heck of a lot more money.

I am thinking of going to nursing school or be a flight attendant. But I am concerned my luck I might get some terminal disease in nursing or the plane will crash after being hired. Anyone get dealt a bad hand of cards in life?

I need a job that's going to get me a better standard of living.

Anyone go through this BS?

TW, I did your first three. It took me longer (I'm 64).

0. 4 year enlistment in the USAF, got out in 1975.

1. BA in CHINESE (I'm fluent) No takers in 1980 to send me to China. MBA, too. No takers in 1983 either.

2. Taught public school over 10 years. Laid off several times (seniority). Finally had it with that system. I think it's broken.

3. Went to school last year, driving now. Don't have the inhalation problem you had.

I've also done some database programming. Have a blog but no advertising. Had a few dead end jobs. No stolen cars, but I did drive Volkswagens back in the day & had to keep rebuilding the engines.

Are you still unable to drive semis? Where did you sit so that you get so many fumes? From the exhaust or from the fuel itself?

How about stop feeling sorry for yourself. Is the Sarcoidosis a lifetime malady or does it go away?

And here i am thinking life dealt me the worst deck of cards @ 31yrs old. Hope all is well goodluck!

but I did drive Volkswagens back in the day & had to keep rebuilding the engines.

Least you had good car taste back in the day Errol hahaha dunno why ya had to rebuild engines so often, stock not built for speed lol

VWbusman compliments:

Least you had good car taste back in the day Errol hahaha dunno why ya had to rebuild engines so often, stock not built for speed lol

I used John Muir's Idiot book. (still in print!!) '60 bug, '66 sq'back, 69 bus. I dunno, maybe I didn't torque the case enough. Maybe I secretly liked replacing the camshaft.

Lol yep I have that manual or even 2 of em, as well as Bentleys factory manual... for my '69 walk thru bus....my '68 deluxe beetle is more high perf. custom....lol 1776 with wild cam, dual carbs, sounds like turbo whistle when I wind her up to 6 grand, flying down road lol Got the "Bug" back in 1980 had to have 1, now have owned about every year, from 1955 to this 68 beetle :)

TW- nursing/health profession is an excellent choice. Start out as a CNA- certified nurses aid, then LPN/ licensed practical nurse, then RN-registered nurse- there's REAL good money as RN. Health professions have a huge demand and pay well. This is what my 32 year old daughter did- started out as CNA. She. Just started getting Masters Degree as a OT- Occupational Therapist.

Good luck.

CNA will b tough. Cleaning up patients messes- vomit/etc- they have to do what the nurses don't want to do. But getting the hospital pay is critical. I know my daughter was paid well when she worked past her regular hours- called emergency pay.

Ya know, if you look at the lives of people that most would consider highly successful they don't read much different than yours. Nobody starts down their first major path in life at 21 years old, find it's paved with gold, and just enjoys the walk for the next 60 years. Nobody.

Although I personally have no riches to show for it I consider my life a smashing success. I've always felt extremely blessed and I have no regrets for any major life decisions I've ever made. And yet if I spelled it all out in a way that was meant to sound negative I would probably receive gifts of sympathy from around the globe and someone would want to write a book about it.

I think having to start over or at least make major changes of direction is a constant in everyone's life no matter what you do or how successful you are. If you're an athlete the sport will constantly evolve, training methods will change, new and better competitors will keep showing up, the politics will bite your *ss from time to time, you'll get injured, your greatest strengths will fade with time, you'll be traded or cut from teams, and eventually you'll retire and go into coaching where all of those things will happen all over again.

If you're in business everything will continuously evolve the same way. Your business model will get blasted to smithereens every 3 to 5 years, new competitors will come up with more efficient systems, the laws will change, your customer base will change, you'll get sued every so often, you'll get sick or injured and struggle to run the company for a while, the politics will bite your *ss from time to time, and eventually you'll either close the doors or sell it to start the next phase of your life where all of those things will happen all over again.

If you have a family you'll face the same changes. You and your spouse will fight from time to time, one of you will lose your job every so often, your kids will get sick or injured from time to time, the laws will change, the taxes will keep going up, the schools will change, your cars will break down, the politics will bite your *ss from time to time, your kids will rebel as teenagers, you'll go through a midlife crisis, your kids will move out leaving you with an empty nest where you'll start a new phase of life and the same things will happen all over again with your kids and grandkids.

But there's one huge advantage that you have after enduring a few decades as an adult - the cumulative knowledge you've gained in all of those endeavors. You know yourself better now than you ever have. You have more knowledge and experience now than you've ever had. You're ready now to move forward with better intelligence, more skills, and more street smarts than you've ever had.

I've always considered my life a smashing success because my goals have been:

1) Enjoy myself no matter what I'm doing

2) Find new and better challenges to take on

3) Experience as much as I can in life

4) Learn as much as possible from all of my experiences

Although I'd prefer to be a millionaire I've always been happy as a thousandaire. Money was never near the top of my list. There were plenty of opportunities for me to make a lot more money than I have but the paths I've chosen left me far more rich than money would have.

So just pull back, regroup, reload, come up with a new plan of attack, and go for it. And as the new attack evolves just expect those constant changes to keep happening and you'll have to keep adapting.

Now you want something depressing? How about not having the freedom and opportunity to pick your path in life and go for it - that would be depressing. But hey, it's 2015 and you're in the great U.S.A. Enjoy it. Do whatever you'd like to do.

-

Look at my username. 'Nuff said.

Best car ever.

VWbusman compliments:

Least you had good car taste back in the day Errol hahaha dunno why ya had to rebuild engines so often, stock not built for speed lol

I used John Muir's Idiot book. (still in print!!) '60 bug, '66 sq'back, 69 bus. I dunno, maybe I didn't torque the case enough. Maybe I secretly liked replacing the camshaft.