48 Glorified Experiences That Reveal Dark Truths Only Survivors Understand
Living on a tropical island. Great for vacation, not so great when you realize how much of the things you use everyday are imported by sea ($$$) including gas (and forget next day deliveriesfrom Amazon), hurricanes/typhoons are a way of life and you can’t just evacuate inland, small population means fewer experts in everything from Healthcare to water treatment operations.
“You have AuDHD?? Omg, bet you’re quirky but organized as h**l!!11!1!!!”
IT [is bad]. IT [is bad] SO BAD. I’VE BEEN MASKING MY ENTIRE LIFE AND GETTING BY AND NOW BURNOUT OF EVERYTHING HAS HIT ME LIKE A TRUCK. I HATE LOUD NOISES. I HATE LISTENING TO PEOPLE MAKE NOISE. I’M AWKWARD AS h**l. I HATE HOW MY LIFE IS DISORGANIZED ORGANIZED. I HATE THE IMPOSTER SYNDROME THAT COMES WITH IT. MY HYPERFIXATIONS MAKE ME LOSE SLEEP AND NOT IN A GOOD WAY. BEING ON THE SPECTRUM IS NOT ALL SUNSHINE AND RAINBOWS!!!!!
“Cool parents”
Yeah, my dad was a hippie and my mom loved Wicca. My mom also befriended an arsonist because his “soul was pure” so like….idk.
You are, essentially, turning banal and routine things into something that ‘must’ have a narrative arc and main character energy. In other words, when every moment is special and important, nothing is.
“We first clung on to mundanity, the small delights of day-to-day life, as an escape. But soon, I fear, we started elevating these moments and placing importance on them so they had slightly too much weight to bear, narrating short videos of pasta as if documentary footage. These romanticised scenes became not just banal (if sometimes beautiful) moments in a day, but an entire lifestyle. Teethbrushing as narrative arc. Aspirational water bottle-filling at the sink.”
Having a chronic illness. People love to self diagnose with all kinds of stuff, put it in their bios, be the centre of attention. I was diagnosed with a lifelong incurable chronic illness when I was 10 and I feel like a perpetual burden on those who love me and the illness needs constant monitoring and it interferes with every moment of the day. I cannot fathom those who want to cosplay that. Weirdos.
What do people romanticize about your profession or lifestyle that doesn’t quite match up to the daily reality? For example, working as a writer certainly matches some of the hyped-up expectations you might have (we survive on endless cups of coffee, do what we love every day, and we’re too smart for our own good) but falls short elsewhere (unfortunately, burnout is far too common, and we didn’t write this on a typewriter with balled-up paper drafts littering the floor).
Grab a drink or a snack and join the conversation in the comments!
Being your own boss/ owning a business.
sala:
I’m convinced that for a lot of businesses that don’t make it, its not because they go brankrupt, its because the owner was not prepared for the level of responsibility, working 70hrs a week and sacrificing almost everything else in their life.
Owning a large home.
It’s nice to experience for a bit, but I’m happier with a modest one.
Living in NYC.
lunarlandscapes:
I think a lot of people romanticize cities they’ve never lived in. Its super easy to think about how romantic and beautiful life could be living in Paris, or NYC, or the New Zealand countryside, but then once you move there and the novelty wears off, you realize you still are living the same life, just in a new city. You still have the same problems and issues you’ve always had. I took a cultural psychology class during my undergrad and we studied this, its super common in immigrants to have a low period a few months after immigrating because of this
Living in an old-timey way by getting water from your own well. I used to live in Yemen and had to carry all my drinking water to my flat. It was awful. And there are kids (like 6-10 yr olds) who spend 4 hours a day just getting the family’s daily water.
Owning horses. Yes you can ride off into the sunset hair flowing in the wind. But there are also 2 AM emergencies, expensive vet bills, can’t spontaneously go out of town because you need to find someone trustworthy to take care of them in advance. Hay shortages which results in insane hay prices. The list goes on. Still love them though.
Being an archaeologist. Dusty [very], very early mornings, super hard on your back, out in all conditions, often find nothing. I don’t know a single archaeologist over 35 without a chronic back/knee/hip problem. Still love it though.
Moving to a new country with a different culture / language.
It gets old when you can’t talk to your doctor in a medical emergency.
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