I have loved textiles since I was 12. When I was 21, I spent all my free time working on a Spider-Man costume. It took months. Just putting tiny little drops of puff paint on, waiting 8 hours for it to dry, then restarting the process. I was like “this is what I want to do with my life.”.
The unfortunate thing is that, as I was in my early 20s when I realized I wanted to do this for a living, is that being so young I didn’t realize that pursuing a interest that is just as much a hobby as it is a career shifts the way you think about it. I was very focused on building my career, to the point of doing heavy research on moving to Vancouver for the film industry. Just, wanting to do it as a job, especially with the fact the whole “build your career asap” rat race thing, it just saps your passion and makes you lose interest. The stakes get way higher. Not like “oh this is boring”, but less “this is what I do in my free time”. There is SO much to learn with something as complex as costume design, and I was like “i need to learn this FAST!”. But…I didnt have the passion. The whole rat race thing just burned me out so that at 23 I said “I can’t do this anymore, I need to change my lifestyle”. So…I got good at a new lifestyle that is actually enjoyable instead of being pure rat race. I’m in college for something else as a back up, and that moves at its own pace. I want to start a workshop for costumes and all sorts of related stuff like props and puppets. Yeah… still a bit of restlessness, but I’m much better at being chill and “it’ll get done when it gets done.” I’m done with this whole rat race stuff. I still want to get far in my career of choice….but I learned that the rat race is stupid and messes up your chemistry. I’d have progressed further in my skill development by now if I hadn’t listened to this rat race. And I know I will be great at it. My creativity is one of my strongest areas, and I’m very dedicated to my craft (I’m neurodivergent, for context). I was just burned out.
Life is for enjoying. This rat race crap is nonsense. I lost sight of WHY I wanted to be a costume designer because of the rat race. I want to do it because it is both one of my passions and an outlet for my other passions.
Edit because people don’t seem to understand: I’m talking about not making it the main focus to the point where it starves your passion and makes everything feel like a job. Living for fun is a mindset. A walk on a lovely day? Sounds fun. A nice TV session with your pet in your arms? That’s fun. Live for that, not the rat race.
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unfortunately, to have fun, you have to be in the rat race to afford to have fun.
That’s all well and good, but if you aren’t part of the rat race then it most likely means someone else is running in it for you. It’s not some choice in a vast majority of cases. I am in agreement that once you get to a comfortable enough position it doesn’t make much senses to keep pushing through more and more stress.
It depends how wealthy your parents are. Many people have to focus on surviving. Generally only those in rich, wealthy countries from wealthy families have the luxury of living for fun.
Is this really an unpopular opinion? If so that’s incredibly sad.