Back to the grind

I’m back home, the place I have called home for the last three months at least. I still feel like I am on holiday on this working holiday visa although I am also working to fund it, taking away some of the fun. When I get the chance I will be travelling away from this Sydney home on mini breaks until my visa expires and I have to return to my actual home.

To summarise, I will be taking short holidays away from my temporary home during my long holiday away from my permanent home.

I hope you’re following? Explaining has never been a strength of mine, so here is a picture of a rat in jail as a quick distraction. Taken on the streets of Newcastle NSW, there is some pretty cool street art to be found here.


This image does relate to my post. It is the way I feel when having to go back to work. I get my breaks daily, my two or so days off and the occasional holiday time but ultimately that is just the tip of the iceberg. An iceberg that is 90% work related, doing what we have to do so we can eventually do what we want to do.

What is the ratio between your work and leisure time? 80:20? 50:50? 100:0?! I have never been to jail, nor do I feel I am in one in employment but the more I think of it this way, the easier it will be able to escape those metaphorical bars and into true freedom.

Published by

Dealing with Disorder

A website dedicated to Tourette, OCD and co-occurring conditions. Daily updates celebrating neurodiversity.

16 thoughts on “Back to the grind”

  3. I can understand some of what you’re feeling. I found in the UK once I got involved with a local church group, I felt more part of life there as it involved socialising and even enjoyed travels and breaks away with others. Someone recently told me about MeetUp (online) as I’m fairly new to this area (and no longer go to church), and there are always things to do locally with people my own age. They have been friendly and welcoming, as most are in the same boat. Just a thought…

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I haven’t heard of MeetUp, thanks for bringing it to my attention. It isn’t so much that I have struggled to meet people (although I haven’t met too many people as I have spent a lot of time blogging!) it’s more that I would love to spend all of my time doing what I enjoy, such as blogging and travelling, without needing to be in a job I don’t want to be in for 40+ hours a week. However, once I start to meet people here more and participate in activities outside of work, I am sure that life will seem much more fulfilled outside of work too! Thanks so much, I’m glad you can relate.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  5. I love this! That elusive location independence… We’re the same. My husband feels fulfillment in his job and we live on an incredible island, where we go exploring every chance we get, but we are still working toward that day when we will have the freedom to untie all anchors that hold us down! The freedom to go where we want, when we want is the ultimate freedom!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  6. It’s my big dilemma at this stage in my life, too. This is one of the reasons I’m pretty sure there’s no god and no plan (the religion I grew up in is particularly insistent on life being a test of worthiness). Most of life, for most people, is just survival. What would be the point of going to all this trouble when only the really privileged get to enjoy it?

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. I certainly don’t agree that life is some sort of test, considering how hard some peoples lives are. It would be a very cruel test if so.
      For me, it makes me want to be successful at something, at least enough to be able to help me and my family get by. Not in a job I don’t want to be in, but in something I enjoy. And not being religious is a boost in motivation for me to do so in this lifetime. Will I? Who knows. Are you demotivated by your thoughts here? Or does it help give you motivation? I hope it is the latter 🙂

      Like

      Reply

      1. I thought about slavery first, and pretty soon I realized that in the history of the world, very, very few people have even been able to make the kinds of choices for their own lives that would be a worthwhile test of someone’s character. Even in developed countries today, most people live under the thumb of forces they can’t control, often can’t even see. So if this whole thing were a test, it would be a spectacularly ineffective one, and yes—very cruel. But then that’s what I think when I look at the world in general; if there’s actually a god who created all of this, especially the interventionist god a lot of people believe in, s/he/it could not possibly be a benevolent being.

        It’s not necessarily a question of motivation for me, although I admit it’s incredibly discouraging (I actually have a post in the works about this right now). There is so much wrong in the world today, more than it’s possible for one person to address in any significant way, and religion generally makes it much worse—whether by actively fighting progress, luring its members into complacency (“God will sort it out”), or just indoctrinating people with the kind of magical thinking that is specifically, enormously detrimental to progress. But not believing in any of that definitely makes the life we have more precious and meaningful, and it means no one’s going to sort it out but ourselves. That’s what’s so funny about religious people saying atheists have nothing to live for.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. There are too many questions for a God to answer if he were to exist, it would need a dedicated post! (I have plenty of those in amongst my thousands of entries!)
        But yes, without religion I have everything to live for. It’s made me want to travel to different countries, try new foods, I don’t take certain things as seriously. Basically it has given me a ‘fuck it’ mentality, but not to the degree that I don’t care, but to the extent that I don’t worry about the consequences as much. I used to be scared of what people used to think of me for example, now I think none of us will be here in the next century, so shouldn’t I spend this time being free from such unimportant worry?!

        Like

    1. Sounds fantastic! I guess what I want is to work to gain an income but in a job I love. That way, it won’t seem like work. I hope you are visiting some cool places 🙂

      Like

      Reply

Leave a comment