As someone who is going to have to get a job in 2-3 years, I’m dreading the day. Going to the same place 5 days a week coming home with no time and energy left for anything you actually like and doing this for FOURTY years or even more if you were unlucky, sounds HORRIBLE!! How could anyone actually like working?
A lot of jobs involve travel, on a variety of scales. My brother is a civil engineer and is on a different site every week. I personally like the routine of going to the same place, but that’s not a requirement for employment.
I mean, that sucks. But you don’t necessarily have to work that many hours or that demanding a job. I do work a physically and emotionally demanding job; I prefer to work on personal projects and household tasks during the day, go to my job in the evenings, and then it doesn’t matter that I come home tired; I go right to bed.
A lot of people like their job. Another respondent said she wouldn’t do her job for free; I probably would if I could afford to. It makes me happy. I can’t afford to and am pretty zealous about making sure I earn a competitive rate, but I even enjoy that aspect, the competition of it.
I mean, it doesn’t have to be the same work that while time. At forty, I’ve been a programmer, a teacher, a waitress, and a full-time parent. I’m thinking about picking up a trade, becoming an electrician or a carpenter or a plumber. As long as you keep learning and keep experimenting, you’ll have an interesting life.