GRcade

Pros:

My brother just got engaged, and I'm really happy for him and his fiancée.

I'm in a steady, healthy relationship for the first time in my life.

The NHS have finally taken the concentration and memory issues I've had for over a decade seriously enough to refer me on to a psychologist, who agrees that there is an underlying issue.

My family are happy and healthy, and even the dog has a happy and active social life.

Cons:

I'm working a full time job in a call centre to pay to study for a full time PhD that I've hated for a number of years now and regret ever starting. I don't like the job any more than the degree, either.

As a result of the long weeks, I've barely seen friends for the last year or so, even people who live round the corner from me, because I just don't have the energy on the few days I do have off both projects.

I may have to move to Edinburgh in the next couple of months as my girlfriend has gotten a decent job there and that's where all my graduation job prospects are, and that means leaving all my friends, family and most importantly, dog, behind, to move to a city that I can't currently afford to live in, and if I'm honest, don't really like.

I'll still need to wait for a number of months before the diagnosis of mental health issues is confirmed, even though we kinda know what the problem is, and it's causing my work and uni work to suffer immensely.

I am starting to approach 30, have no savings currently, and am in almost £10,000 of uni and car related debt, with no real hope of crawling out of it any time soon.

So yeah, I dunno really. It's always easier to think of bad than good, but I know I'm very stressed at the moment and I don't really know how to not be stressed.

Right now I have pizza, so I'm over the strawberry floating moon.

I can't remember the last time I was genuinely happy about something. I put on an act around people and just try to find things to distract myself from the feeling of emptiness and that there's a load of shite looming.

Jam-Master Jay wrote:I can't remember the last time I was genuinely happy about something. I put on an act around people and just try to find things to distract myself from the feeling of emptiness and that there's a load of shite looming.

*/

I have a Nintendo Switch with Zelda, so obviously it's a 10 from me.

I think my problem with trying to achieve long term happiness is still that I have the perhaps immature mentality of always wanting to lead an interesting life over all else. So I quite often avoid being content in order to ensure I can still go to random places to live or work and attend non-stop parties or events. Even lately - I'm very happy with my girlfriend - but I keep getting hit on at events and it really turns your head. Makes it more difficult to be simply satisfied.

I am very unhappy. Scoring out of ten, I'd probably put myself at averaging a 3, with occasional bumps here and there.

However, I am moving to France later today, so maybe that will be the start of an upturn.

I recently lost steady freelance job I've had for five years which was the difference between financially getting by comfortably each month and scraping by. This has happened at the same time my full time job has got steadily less enjoyable due to various factors, including being told during our review period late last year that a promotion and pay-rise were basically set in stone, only to get neither. Throw a non-existent love life on top of that, which is non-existent in part because of me throwing myself into work, and it's all feeling a bit like I'm on my way down a slippery slope.

Didn't you get a review Switch though?

Skippy wrote:I recently lost steady freelance job I've had for five years which was the difference between financially getting by comfortably each month and scraping by. This has happened at the same time my full time job has got steadily less enjoyable due to various factors, including being told during our review period late last year that a promotion and pay-rise were basically set in stone, only to get neither. Throw a non-existent love life on top of that, which is non-existent in part because of me throwing myself into work, and it's all feeling a bit like I'm on my way down a slippery slope.

This could honestly be a plot synopsis for The Devil Wears Prada.

Did Anne Hathaway have suicidal thoughts in that film? I haven't seen it

Pros:

I am finally doing the job I love and working a place where I love doing it. It's taken a long while to get here and it's a pretty nice feeling.

I have been able to take on a second job which only takes up 7 hours a week, is really bloody easy and has fantastic pay. It's basically given me a nice extra pot of money to spend every month.

I'm settled in my relationship, it's had its up and downs but feel like we're at a point where almost everything is running smoothly and there's a future in it.

My family and friends are all happy and healthy and we talk frequently.

Cons:

I am currently only on a 12 month contract at my current job which runs out in July, I have been told verbally to expect another year at least but due to management changes there's nothing definite at the moment.

Second job means I only get one lie in a week, I'm starting to miss my lazy Sunday mornings!

Although relationship is good it does feel a little unbalanced at the moment. My girlfriend hasn't passed her driving test yet and has no other way to get to work so I am driving her to and from work every day, meaning my 5-10 minute round trip becomes a 40-50 minute round trip, she also doesn't do enough around the house (although this is improving since we discussed it) so I've often felt like the relationship can be a bit unfair, hopefully this will be resolved when she passes her driving test.

Although I speak to my friends frequently it is becoming more and more difficult to actually do anything together which is a shame but I suppose an inevitably as we get older.



So overall, pretty good, a few things could be better but going back 12 months and I was fairly depressed about work and career. I was working more, travelling more but earning less. It had a pretty big knock on effect on the way I generally was and I was fairly miserable. Me and my girlfriend were frequently arguing as well which didn't help matters. 7/10

Jamo3103 wrote:Although relationship is good it does feel a little unbalanced at the moment. My girlfriend hasn't passed her driving test yet and has no other way to get to work so I am driving her to and from work every day, meaning my 5-10 minute round trip becomes a 40-50 minute round trip, she also doesn't do enough around the house (although this is improving since we discussed it) so I've often felt like the relationship can be a bit unfair, hopefully this will be resolved when she passes her driving test.

Does she at least let you sling it up her shitter?

Preezy wrote:

Jamo3103 wrote:Although relationship is good it does feel a little unbalanced at the moment. My girlfriend hasn't passed her driving test yet and has no other way to get to work so I am driving her to and from work every day, meaning my 5-10 minute round trip becomes a 40-50 minute round trip, she also doesn't do enough around the house (although this is improving since we discussed it) so I've often felt like the relationship can be a bit unfair, hopefully this will be resolved when she passes her driving test.

Does she at least let you sling it up her shitter?

Not even that, the selfish bitch.

Hmm. Not really something i often consider so let's do some pros and cons lists:

+ Got a new job last year that is at the heart of the most important part of our industry, better for my development and came with a significant pay rise.
+ Moved into my own new house last year.
+ Marrying the love of my life in June.
+ Got a newer car late last year which was severely needed.
+ Got a puppy who helps to light up my life and is the most adorable and excitable thing ever.

- banana split in-laws.
- My fiance and I constantly disagreeing on what is best for the dog.

I suppose an 8 will do.

To be fair I think if you don't normally consider happiness you're probably genearlly pretty happy/content, I normally only think about my mood consistently when I'm in feeling low.

I'm rarely happy, but I'm also rarely really depressed any more. More often than not I'm merely content with my life, but the wall between contentment and depression is paper strawberry floating thin.

In October my boyfriend got fired, which was pretty traumatic as we worked at the same place, with the same boss. I had to work 6 day weeks and do freelance outside of that for the same company that had strawberry floated us, just to pay our rent. Some people at work were proper twats about it too. Lots of gossip. The whole thing was a lot of hard work, for various reasons.

But then around Christmas he found an amazing remote working dream job, and that freed me up to move to Oxford in for a fantastic opportunity. We're renting a tiny cottage with open fire, I'm fulfilled at work, we've got more money and we get to explore a new part of the country.

So I've gone from pretty awful to pretty good in quite a short space of time. I'd say I'm tired and bewildered by the speed with which we overhauled our whole lives (four weeks from job offer to starting new job - moving from Nottingham to Oxford) but an 8 in happiness. Which is nice.

It does feel rather fragile though, how quickly things can change.

Two years ago I had a decent social life but just came out of a bad relationship. I was unhappy in my job, was rejected for a transfer and also for applications elsewhere, was struggling to fit in studying in my spare time due to lack of money and terrible hours, and had to borrow money off my Dad after I had to admit to him the reason I didn't buy his wife a Christmas present was because I had so little money from stretching myself too thin. A month later I was fired from my job, and over the next few months my money troubles got much worse due to my housing benefit taking almost 2 months to start, and my job seekers only lasting about a month before they cut me off. I wasn't able to find a job, got into several grand worth of dept, and eventually had to tell my family since I ran out of possessions to sell and moved back in my with mother for the first time in almost a decade.

I'm now out of debt, even saved a bit of money, just had a "promotion" at work, and in the best shape of my life. My social life is a little lacking, since most of my friends here are married or have kids and concentrate on that part of their lives, and it's just generally more difficult to spontaneously socialise in a town than a city. I'm single, and live at my mum's still. I'm not sure how I'm going to move out any time soon, since she can't afford to live here alone. I'm still not sure if I'll have to fight to get more pay for this new job due to it being a very unstructured way they've gone about things. I've been helping my Dad a bit with his business in my spare time, but it's not really lead to anything yet. I had a date a couple of weeks ago, but she didn't want a second. I decided to give tinder and a few things a go recently and could only get one woman to have a conversation with me so gave up. I feel like I need to do something like a course, to try and do something that could potentially lead to a job I would enjoy, and be passionate about and actually earn more than minimum wage for, but I don't have enough free time or space at the moment. I feel very unimpressive and uninteresting at the moment, still finding my feet from a few years ago. I feel lonely a lot.

5/10

Solid 10 for me.

Kid due in may
Enjoying my job
Just got a new car
House is starting to look like a home