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My job is honestly great culture and working environment wise and I love (nearly) everyone I work with, but I do often feel sad. I think for me it’s a combination of having the responsibility of this obligation (see image), feeling sad that I’m not meeting some imagined potential, and also just not being busy and stimulated enough. I find that when I’m busy and being challenged I don’t really have time to feel sad.
It’s important to have work-life balance and create a fulfilling life when you’re not working + to find ways to make your time during work more enjoyable. Like when I’m working on something very tedious that doesn’t require me to focus on the screen I watch TV shows on mute with captions at .5x speed at the same time—right now I’m rewatching Yellowjackets because I just finished season 3 lol.
I’m hoping I’ll feel differently after taking a career pivot but I don’t even necessarily think that this sadness is really about work at the end of the day; it’s just that working is what I spend the majority of my time doing. Wherever you go, there you are…
May 8, 2025
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This is very true and real. I do think a lot of it is coming to terms with the responsibility of having to be there regardless of whatever is going on in your life. At school it was much easier to just not pay attention if you weren’t up for it. Glad it’s not just me that feels this way, but sad that anyone feel this at all!!
May 8, 2025
@VALOORIE i think ultimately it’s just a part of life and I’m sure a lot of people feel this way because working for a living honestly just sucks and it takes up sooo much of your time!!
May 8, 2025
hard agree tater! also i just started yellowjackets and it’s so fun. i had been confusing it with yellowstone this whole time 💀💀💀💀
May 8, 2025
@BABYOBLIVI0N lmfaoooo very different shows to say the least. I love Yellowjackets it’s definitely one of my favorites
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zooming out my perspective helps me do this. humans working has been essential to our survival and development as a species since we’ve been here. even if when we’re clocked in we’re just cogs in the machine, that machine can be necessary. finding the reasons you do what you do, the people who’s lives you help or make easier by doing your job, the way your job impacts your community… i feel all this helps encourage pride and purpose in whatever we’re doing.
idk if that’s exactly what’s making you sad, but i get it. the idea of a life of work ahead sounds daunting and miserable, but humans are adaptable and i hope you find some more joy in your job soon!
May 8, 2025
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(I'm an old(ish). Thanks for considering this advice, given earnestly and with good intention, from experience.)
Assuming the nature of your work isn't the source of the sadness? The gratitude you mentioned... Find ways to blow that up! Reflect on whether a past version of yourself would be proud of where you are now. The peace of boredom is a blessing. Seriously! A large amount of time spent as an adult is simply existing day-to-day. It gets repetitive, "there's nothing new under the sun."
But also, stay as healthy as possible so you can do things outside of work. Make sure you are getting enough sleep, eating well. Don't smoke or vape anything. Maybe when the rhythm of your career settles in you will be able fully build out your whole life and work will only be a little part of it. The transition from school to career is temporary, trust that you'll get the balance right soon enough. IDK... I wouldn't know about long term careers, 😂 I have done a bunch of different stuff since I finished with school, none of it even close to what I went for. If I got bored or outgrew it or it got toxic, I moved on. No one *wants* to labor, right? Capitalism 🤬 sucks. But we *do* want to contribute to society, to our communities. Many types of work do that even under capitalism. So. Whatever you do, be grateful that you are contributing, but realize it doesn't define you, and learn how to be grateful for things that you might otherwise not be, like boredom.
Gratitude is always the answer, especially to sadness; and comparison is a thief of joy.
May 8, 2025
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^^THIS mantra saved my life. I feel for you and I feel equipped to answer this, it's been a main theme for me since I finished college about 8 years ago.
No one prepares you for the absolute freefall of post grad. We're trained to work our ass off in school. Make ourselves appear well-rounded so we're marketable. We're able to gauge our progress against our peers in a tangible way. If we work hard, we'll have more opportunities – in school and in our career. We'll be free, happy, and financially comfortable. But it's not true. The tracks suddenly end and there's no clear path forward. It's a freedom that feels harrowing to most people (it did to me!) because no one is telling you what you should do, and that's so scary. And it's normal.
A "career" is a product of various factors like opportunity, socioeconomic status, nepotism, and luck. Obviously there are exceptions, but that's a more common reality. I'm not saying it's pointless to get good grades and a college degree 🙃 but it's definitely not a guarantee to get your "dream job" or any job lol. I'm someone that worked hard to do everything "right" and it still took me 3+ years to get a job in the industry I studied. I worked retail and felt like a failure while I watched my friends climb up a ladder I couldn't even touch yet. When I finally landed a full-time marketing job I would find myself complaining a ton. About my boss or my random coworker or that I wasn't making the world a better place. The goal I'd been working to achieve my whole life was just a big, fat bummer! The bubble popped. I'd apply to jobs like a new start would save me. Then I got laid off. I landed a new gig that isn't perfect either.
But I'm starting to realize it doesn't really matter.
I've gone through cycles of feeling so oppressed by capitalism, so out of control of my own day-to-day, I developed severe depression and anxiety. My career-self and home-self split further and further apart because I didn't feel safe at work.
But recently I've realized a big part of why I was miserable was because that's what I told myself. Maybe I needed to cycle through these feelings for some reason. I got on medication, did a yoga teacher training, and started doing little things throughout the day to make myself happy. When I stopped being so hard on myself to reach some stupid made-up standard I could finally exhale. It also really helped to spend time with people older than me. Now I make choices to improve my life even just 1%, like going home at lunch to spend a few minutes in the sun, cutting back on alcohol, saying no to things I didn't want to do. I'm enjoying the now more than ever before because I stopped trying to push myself to look for what's next.
Now when I feel my anxiety creeping in at work (or anywhere) I just tell myself it's not that serious. 99% of the time it's true. You can not love your job and still be ridiculously happy. I've spent my life honoring all my emotions and not all of them deserve to be honored! Release and enjoy where you're at! The good and the bad, it's all temporary.
May 8, 2025
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My dad teases me about how when I was a little kid, my favorite thing to do when I was on the landline phone with somebody—be it a relative or one of my best friends—was to breathlessly describe the things that were in my bedroom so that they could have a mental picture of everything I loved and chose to surround myself with, and where I sat at that moment in time. Perfectly Imperfect reminds me of that so thanks for always listening and for sharing with me too 💌
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May 28, 2025
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I’ve been thinking about how much of social media is centered around curating our self-image. When selfies first became popular, they were dismissed as vain and vapid—a critique often rooted in misogyny—but now, the way we craft our online selves feels more like creating monuments.
We try to signal our individuality, hoping to be seen and understood, but ironically, I think this widens the gap between how others perceive us and who we really are. Instead of fostering connection, it can invite projection and misinterpretation—preconceived notions, prefab labels, and stereotypes. Worse, individuality has become branded and commodified, reducing our identities to products for others to consume.
On most platforms, validation often comes from how well you can curate and present your image—selfies, aesthetic branding, and lifestyle content tend to dominate. High engagement is tied to visibility, not necessarily depth or substance. But I think spaces like PI.FYI show that there’s another way: where connection is built on shared ideas, tastes, and interests rather than surface-level content. It’s refreshing to be part of a community that values thoughts over optics.
By sharing so few images of myself, I’ve found that it gives others room to focus on my ideas and voice. When I do share an image, it feels intentional—something that contributes to the story I want to tell rather than defining it. Sharing less allows me to express who I am beyond appearance.
For women, especially, sharing less can be a radical act in a world where the default is to objectify ourselves. It resists the pressure to center appearance, focusing instead on what truly matters: our thoughts, voices, and authenticity. I’ve posted a handful of pictures of myself in 2,500 posts because I care more about showing who I am than how I look.
In trying to be seen, are we making it harder for others to truly know us? It’s a question worth considering.
Dec 27, 2024