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“What do you do?”
Today, I felt overwhelmed by the question I ask myself constantly “what do I want to do with my life?”. Today, I felt particularly overwhelmed by these feelings of existentialism. Part of the reason is because- uh- I have COVID, and I am stuck inside for roughly the next week; alone, and to my thoughts. My cat makes things better though. On top of being doomed to isolation, I am in a transitional period of my life; I recently quit both of my jobs and am converting to living in a van. I also am starting a graduate program in a couple months. As I am sitting inside, contemplating life, eating through my money on Amazon and Instacart, I start to feel the pressure of finding a source of income. I can’t go on jobless forever.
I think I ask myself this question constantly, because others ask it of me. When people ask “what do you do?” they are usually talking about work. How you make money. The fact is that “what do you do?” is the second or third question you're probably asked when you first enter into a conversation with someone. In my opinion, it disturbingly represents our society’s sick obsession for monetary means.
This is something I learned as I got older. Society judges you based off how you make money. You are categorized based off your profession, and inherently fall into a socio-economic bracket- which determines an array of factors such as who you are friends with and romantic…
