Spontaneity and happiness - Is the option for variety the spice of life?

[PaleTay]

I was thinking about how people reflect fondly on high school despite being broke or at the very least cheap with few freedoms, yet spend great amounts of money on attempts to find happiness as adults. My gym closed and I miss random conversations more than I expected, and I miss the morning conversations of high school and sometimes university on the way to class. I miss the variety of having lunch or going somewhere with a girl or a splinter of the friend group instead of it being a meticulously planned event with an hour commute or something with the same people every single day.

People go on vacations to escape their daily lives and do something new, or use drugs or alcohol to escape the mundane nature of life. Is this just because regular life is so boring and predictable?

 

[Blasterisk]

just put "being happy" on your schedule smh

 

[Troonos]

Yeah, adulthood sucks, and then you die.

 

[The Fool]

People go on vacations to escape their daily lives and do something new, or use drugs or alcohol to escape the mundane nature of life. Is this just because regular life is so boring and predictable?

The entirety of Buddhism is about solving this so yes.

 

[NOT Sword Fighter Super]

I mean, when you're in HS you basically have all the time in the world to be whatever you want to be.
By the time you're in your 30s you've either achieved your goals, are well on your way, or you've squandered your potential.

So of course you would look fondly on your pre-failure days.

 

[Gaussiana]

I often think about routines and all the mundane shit you have to do everyday as the foundation of your adult life. Things over those routines that bring new experiences and feelings are necessary to feel like your soul isn't rotting, however living the life of a thrillseeker will often just derail you as well.
Honestly I had a shit time in high school and everything started to get better once I graduated. It's like my expectations for the job market, college and dating/social life were so ridiculously low that my relative success was a pleasant surprise.

 

[melty]

What's weird is that I know my life was worse in pretty much every way when I was a kid and teenager, yet I'm still a massive nostalgiafag. I can't really explain it. I don't buy that it has to do with spontaneity or routines or freedom. I felt way less free and spontaneous as a kid.

I mean, when you're in HS you basically have all the time in the world to be whatever you want to be.
By the time you're in your 30s you've either achieved your goals, are well on your way, or you've squandered your potential.

So of course you would look fondly on your pre-failure days.

Maybe it's this.

 

[PaleTay]

I mean, when you're in HS you basically have all the time in the world to be whatever you want to be.
By the time you're in your 30s you've either achieved your goals, are well on your way, or you've squandered your potential.

So of course you would look fondly on your pre-failure days.

I feel like naivety and optimism are big parts of goals, for example wanting to be a doctor or to make movies are more interesting to fantasize about than to actually do.

I'm not in my 30s yet, but I feel like the only things left for me to do involve thrill seeking (shark diving), trying to do something impossible, relationship goals, or just buying a different house or getting a different job to kill boredom.

just put "being happy" on your schedule smh

Lockdowns wrecked a good amount of that. My schedule is limited so I had to cancel on a few activities, and even stuff like group hiking is a much bigger challenge to organize instead of just being able to do it spontaneously.

 

[Shadfan666xxx000]

I'm not in my 30s yet, but I feel like the only things left for me to do involve thrill seeking (shark diving), trying to do something impossible, relationship goals, or just buying a different house or getting a different job to kill boredom.

So much of it really does come down to that. Once you're an adult, your time becomes so limited and the more you gain, the more restrained you become simply because you have to pay for everything. Laying down roots is immensely restrictive as a result, and changing yourself into something different is a chore once you realize most jobs are shit anyway. The college experience wears on you quick too. I'm glad I spent my early 20s in a late night call center instead of some crappy university where I would have been broke and surrounded by neurotics.