Suddenly, "life is short" actually means something to me

I want to dedicate my life to snowboarding.

I want to dedicate my life to writing.

I want to dedicate my life to building and road racing cars.

I want to dedicate my life to traveling.

I want to dedicate my life to teaching.

I want to dedicate my life to music, and guitar.

I’m twenty-three, graduating in a few weeks, and the world is my oyster. Why do I feel so crushed by my dreams?

I think it’s normal to feel like there’s too much great stuff for one person to tackle in a lifetime. Pick your favorites first, then prioritize by your actual ability to accomplish them. As you move down the Big Road Of Life you’ll not only accomplish some, but you’ll add and subtract from that list based on all the new experiences you’ll have. Happy graduation and good luck!

You can do it all, just not all at once.
Enjoy the rest of your life!

spending some time in a 3rd world country can add a little perspective.

you’re feelings are pretty common around this stage in life. i can remember feeling that way 20 years ago. now i don’t

I agree totally with China Guy, take a holiday in the third world and come back and see your world through new eyes.

Oh, and try to remember, you prepare for school exams and dinner parties, you LIVE life.

Ask any fifty year old and they’ll confirm all the things they fretted over in their coming up years was time wasted ! It’s never the things you think that will get you, it’s always the things you could never have forseen, so spare yourself.

I can understand how overwhelming it is to have the whole world as your oyster, you could pursue any path. But each choice means there’s a path you didn’t choose!

What would you do, from that list, if you knew you only had six more months?

Good luck on finding your path. :smiley:

Write down the list of stuff you want to do on a piece of paper and post it on your fridge or somewhere else that you’ll see it every day. If you’re anything like me, having items on a “to do” list that I haven’t done is a great inspiration to get them done. It makes me actually look up places to do all of those things and get out and actually DO them. If the list isn’t written down, I just don’t feel the same motivation/pressure to get those things done, even if I really want to do them.

So make a list and start doing things and crossing them off the list!

If you dedicate your life to any one of those things, it will probably start to bore the piss out of you and/or bite you in less than years or so. You probably have 6 - 7 decades left in you. That is plenty of time to have a full-blown career in each of the things you list and then grow tired of it and start a new one. I would recommend starting with the most physically challenging ones first and working up from there.

Because it’s an exciting time in your life but ALSO a time in which you have probably been workign hard ad under stress for a while, considering you are just finishing your degree, so it’s not astonishing that you should feel a little overwhelmed.

All best wishes - I am sure things will be fine. :slight_smile:

Don’t worry - odds are that your first job will do a fine job of crushing your dreams for you.

I don’t know. Are you suffering from some form of ADD that renders you unable to focus?

Build a car and race it to some distant mountains, where you can snowboard. Then, write a song about it and teach it to everyone you meet.

Why don’t you just “do stuff” instead of “dedicate your life” to stuff. You probably won’t feel so crushed.

Is this that ‘Quarter Life Crisis’ they are talking about in the Pit?