Paramedic here, I know this EXACT feeling all too well.
Just this month I was thinking about “starting over” but I’ll never truly get back to not knowing the actual horrors that exist in this world.
Fuck my life, why did I even post in this thread and bring this upon my self…
Seriously just had a call that was horrible. No words Oakminster I hope you feel better soon!
I’m sorry to hear it. Remember that you are doing God’s work, but you are only human. There will be a time to stop, recover and move on to something new and to take this experience with you. You will know when that will be.
Its really close. Im going to ask for a little time off after my next shift tonight.
Oakminster, I’ve noticed that you and I tend to fall on opposite sides of the ideological spectrum, and I’m the daughter of a small-town attorney who tended to defend those on the other side of what you do. That having been said…hang in there. The system, and the world, needs good-hearted people fulfilling all the roles of the legal system. Do what you have to do to take care of yourself and keep yourself sane, and know that in ways great and small that you don’t even notice, you are making a difference.
ajb867, you too. Do what you need to do to keep yourself safe.
The Second Stone I wanted to thank you for your post. Your statement causes both feelings of comfort and conflict, mostly comfort though. Its hard for someone to imagine what just happened and I’m not in a position to talk about it openly.
Some days I just don’t know why I chose to do this, and other days its all I want to do.
Can’t we shoot both of them? Hell her father’s parents were probably abusive nightmares themselves so can we shoot them too?
Dad–I mean Gramps is probably a crack addict too.
It’s Saturday morning. Find yourself a soccer or pee-wee football game. Stand on the sidelines and watch the 8-10 year-olds try their best, fall down, get up, do it again, try harder, and then walk away laughing when it’s all over.
It will go a long way toward restoring your faith in the future of humanity.
Thanks for doing what you do, Oakminster. Even if I had the brains and the wherewithal to be a lawyer I wouldn’t last five minutes doing your job.
As long as he doesn’t get fingered as a pedophile stalker by a helicopter parent (which has happened to me). I’m not sure whether this says more about the prevalence of pedophiles or the paranoia of parents, but whatever it says about our society, it ain’t pretty.
Oakminster, do you have an art museum or something similar available? I’ve always found art, music, etc. helpful when I get the feeling that the bulk of humanity consists of Morlocks who were kicked out for being too brutish.
Oakminster, keep it up. As a CPS / Foster Care worker, I can completely sympathize with your day. Most of our days are the same or worse. Just remember, every day you’ve made it a little better for someone. Also, booze helps.
For every bad person out there, there’s a good person somewhere. It’s just nature’s way of balancing out things. Of course some occupations deal with doing society’s dirty work.
If meet a few nice people in a day, I know I’m overdue to meet an asshole.
For you and everyone else who is doing a necessary job that is eating away at your humanity, you need to stop telling yourself this - it isn’t true. When you’ve had enough and you quit, life will go on. Maybe if enough people quit and they can’t find someone to do a dirty job for no money, maybe things will change (probably not, but you never know). When you’ve done enough time in the trenches and you need to move on or your own quality of life suffers, know that you did what you could and it’s more than most people do.
Just make sure you pick a team from the bottom two thirds of the league. At the top, all you’ll see are budding competetive jerks. 
At least until someone calls the cops to report the strange man staring at kids in the park.
People are stupid and cruel.
Or as I say;
The Story of Humanity is the story of man’s inhumanity to man.
Oakminster, Qadgop, and all others with stressful jobs that support others no matter what the income level is: Thank you, and best wishes for continuing what you do. Yeah, life is awful sometimes, and you see that most often. Anything you see that the rest of us can do to make it better, either for you or the system?
In any case, I hope you keep all your marbles polished and intact while going through the system to get an admirable job done.
Oh yeah, you think you got it rough? I teach English to Japanese schoolchildren!
Yeah, at least law clients don’t try to poke their fingers into your butt.
(I think. IANAL.)
Well, if you’re anal, you should know about these things. KANCHO!