Life is suffering?
 

I've been trying to get a positive outlook on life. I did recently, but it seems that everyone around me is telling me that life only gets worse as you get older, that I need to pick a career and go for it (I'm going to college but although I'm going for art and such I don't know what exactly I'll be doing).

I feel very fragile -- when I get a whole lot of responsabilities, I wind up falling apart. I need down time and it seems that for the rest of my life, I'll be working constantly at one thing or another, with no money and just generally miserable.

I don't want this! Help...

...which is exactly what I need. I need to have someone to help me, and I need to be able to help her. We are currently seperated by 600 miles and we will be for a long time.

But help from other people would be good too, you know?
Somebody from my life in the real world that wasn't trying to make me fit their ideals and instead trying to help me be what I wanted?

Is life horrible?

Not all the time. Life has its good and bad parts. It wouldn't be life otherwise.
My experience is that life actually gets better as you get older, both as I've found it, and also many other people I know - friends from uni, my parents, my flatmates....
You kind of learn Managing Life as you go along. You learn about yourself, too.

I've been there where you are, others wanting me to be a certain way, not myself. It also landed me in taking on more responsiblities than I could really handle, and that made me more ill.

It sounds to me that Art is a good choice for you, as it allows you to express yourself, and find out some more about who you are.

For now I would suggest... focus on being with yourself, finding like-minded friends.... there is plenty of time to figure out what your life direction is.

I'm no expert ... but I am an older person who has lived through making the wrong choices, too soon, and had to spent a long time re-directing things and managing the consequences.

i'm going to tell you what i tell all my incoming college students, if you're not sure what you want to do, take any course that interests you. it doesn't matter if it fits into your flow sheet or not, you can always get permission from a chair person to make it fit. it's more important to find something that makes *you* happy, not anyone else. after all, you're the one who will be having to live with you're career, not them. and there's no rush in figuring it out. even if you graduate college with an art degree and realize you want to be a psychologist or social worker, you can go to graduate school and get a masters in psych or social work. there's always a way.
and life doesn't get harder as you get older, if anything it gets easier. you're your own boss.
sorry if this sounds preachy, i've been where you are, and i just wish someone was there to tell me i didn't have to make a choice.
good luck

I think life can be horrible, but at the same time it doesn't have to be. It is true that there is a lot that happens that is beyond your control, but there are things in your life that you can influence and perhaps focussing on those things helps you to feel better about things. You can create good things for yourself, you can do the things which you want to do and it is definitely possible to make good things happen.

I know what it's like to feel overwhelmed be responsibility and it's not an easy position to be in - but I think the only thing you can do is take things slowly, one step at a time.

Try to remember that things do change; you may be working constantly now and feel miserable a lot of the time, but as you grow older, your circumstances could change and you can find things that will make you happy.

Life isn't easy, but it doesn't always bring you bad things.
Take care
xxx

from my experience, life doesn't get worse as you go on. Okay, so I'm 22, but I'm positive life can be awesome.
It's not always easy, but you have everything for you. Pick a career and stick to it? Hello, this is the 21st century. Studies show that more than ever, people change careers at least 3 times in their life and this number is bound to go up.
Do whatever you want to do, without regrets. I believe that every experience is valuable. You might be scraping a bit for money sometimes, but who cares? Since when one needs money to enjoy a sunny afternoon in the park or to hang out with friends or to find someone who'll love them?
It's all about the little things *nods*