I am at the church I volunteer at, supposedly working on the budget, but I am having trouble concentrating because the belly-dance class class is meeting today. They’ve had some overflow, so about half a dozen young (= 25 or so) girls in belly dance outfits are using the room right in front of my desk.
But that’s just me. What problems do you have that you expect absolutely no sympathy for?
Keep your mind pure and chaste. 
(Assuming it’s a Christian church, of course)
No, no, no. I’m not looking for advice; I know the situation is ridiculous. You’re supposed to share your own problems that you know nobody will have any sympatthy for.
Having girls falling all over me. Inexplicably.
Being monogamous by nature, and in a committed relationship at the time, it was highly uncomfortable.
Didn’t help that one of them (the more aggressive one) was also officially dating a buddy of mine.
I’m in Medical school and although I’m not failing, I really don’t know if it’s what I want to do with my life, so I’m considering doing something else.
Jesus Christ, I’ve grown old on this board. I remember when you were 14, I think. I used to give you advice about girls.
ETA: And there’s my problem that no one off-board will sympathize with!
Ah, here’s one. I bought some Apple stock about 9 years ago at the bottom (around 15, pre-split). The stock went up to 30 and I sold 100 shares for a $1500.00 gain. Ka-ching! The stock went up to 33 and I sold another 100 shares for an $1800.00 gain. Whee! I’m a financial genius!
The stock has since split and increased by a factor of 35 so if I’d kept those 200 shares, they’d now be worth…um, divide by 2, carry the 1…northwards of 100K for a gain of $97K. I did keep 50 shares socked away though, so I’m not expecting any great amount of sympathy.
Similarly, having people I’ve known for a long time tell me that they had a crush on me when we were younger and still do. I’m married now, so it’s not like I could do anything about it, and most of the time, it’s from an inexplicable dry spell wherein I could have used some romantic attention. I also have people who are pretty new in my life or complete strangers do the “durr, you’re pretty! ::drools::” behavior, sometimes in front of their significant others. It’s embarrassing, as it’s really unwanted at this point. I really do not care about unrequited feelings of others, and it makes my life complicated to know about it and feels like them telling me brings some sort of pressure to do something about it. :rolleyes::smack:
I have a government job with minimal responsibilities, kind and supportive supervisors, and a salary and benefits package that plenty of my friends - even the ones from law school - would kill for. And unless I screw up in some way that’s almost - or actually - criminal, I can keep this job until the day I retire. I’ll get regular and substantial raises - easily enough to support a family, if I ever decide to settle down.
I hate this gig. I went to law school to fight, damnit, not to just coast through life, and I feel like this job is making me stupider every day. I would cheerfully take a massive pay-cut to go work for a nonprofit public-interest shop - hell, I’d even take a one-year fellowship. My sense of self-worth is tied pretty tightly to my work - I don’t think this job is worth much, so right now I don’t feel like I’m worth much.
When I was attending college, I had trouble finding jeans in my size. Most of the stores where my folks lived carried only size eight and up…I needed an elusive size six. I got no sympathy from most other girls for that problem, that’s for sure! These days it annoys me that underwear in size five can be hard to find too, but I’m wise enough not to complain about it to other women.
Are you allowed to do pro-bono work?
I keep reaching my maximum number of accumulated PTO (paid time off) days and my administrator has to warn me to take a day off every month or so else I’ll lose a day. I had vacation plus Memorial Day this week, so that’s 5 days off my total, which should hold me for a while.
I caught myself whining to my sister about our boat maintenance woes - you know, the hole in the water you pour money into. My sister doesn’t have a boat and could never hope to have one, with 2 kids’ worth of college loans. You can’t bitch about your boat to anyone but another boat owner.
Do what you have to do; just remember that there’s such a wide array of specialties out there in medicine these days that you will really have a lot of choices about lifestyles, type of work, etc. within medicine itself. Blood bank pathology? No problem! Epidemiology? A fascinating field. Physiatry? Interesting work, and usually good hours. Lab medicine? Retinal laser surgeon? Psychiatry of the transgendered? They’re all out there.
Good luck making your decisions.
2 years ago my sons spent the summer with their grandparents in Switzerland (my husband is a Swiss immigrant). And last year my husband was on his sabbatical and he worked temporarily in Germany so we were there all last summer.
So as I was picking up the kids from school one day this spring I mentioned some local activities for summer break and the boys both said, “I’m so glad we won’t be spending the summer in Europe again!” Two of the passing teachers gave the kids dirty looks and I just know they were thinking, “Spoiled brats! I wish I could spend summers in Europe!”
But the boys are now at the age when they don’t want to be separated from their friends over the summer and they just want to hang around here, go swimming, go bowling or biking. But who is sympathetic to having too many long European vacations?
Yes, but only with difficulty - I need to get it approved on a per-case basis, and there are extensive restrictions, at least for the work I’m interested in. Which makes it hard to take on a steady volunteer gig with a legal nonprofit - ever time I’d get a new assignment, I’d have to go back to my bosses, and that’s taken weeks in the past.
What I can do, easily, is non-legal volunteer work, and certain types of legal educational work - judging high school moot courts, for example. I’ve done both, and I’m actually hoping to take on a steady non-legal gig starting tomorrow. That’ll help - but still, it stinks to spend most of my work-week in a job that’s far removed from the fights I’d like to join.
I wish I could say the section I bolded was surprising.
Well, I’m surprised you can get things approved in weeks rather than months.
Are you me? I’m selling 160 hours back this year and I’ll still have enough time banked to take 6 weeks off.
Haha I only know of one church in Memphis where you’d find belly dancing classes. 
Nobody sympathizes with me because I get bored sitting here all day at home.
I have hardly any time to ride my horse these days* so I have to make do with lessons on a school horse at a local barn.**
*Seriously. She’s leased by a family three hours away from where I live now. I don’t get there much, and when I do, I’m usually too tired to ride, so I just pet her and give her carrots.
** Where I can’t afford to keep the horse I actually own.