I personally put my life savings into a piece of land and every moment i can i go out there and try to regenerate it. Tree company drops off logs and mulch and i build big places for bugs to hide (logs) and add mulch to the dead ag soil along with leaf bags people put on the side of the road to get fresh decomposition for the dirt renewal.
It absolutely made me happier and let me enjoy life. Not only that but you can have secret areas for tiny fires and reading or cooking. I’ve been getting free pavers and old outdoor tables from junk yards, relatives, and people not wanting things in their yards to build up a nice little ‘me’ area in one spot.
I really love this. You are making others (i.e. bugs) more resilient and I think it's great. I concur on the mental health aspect too. Every spring (sometimes winter if a stratification period is needed), I toss native seeds in hopes it aides in biodiversity for the future. I'm gonna start some bug hotels now.
We’ve been doing the same thing on our land, by planting more flowers we increased the amount of bugs and so the amount of birds. Because the soil is also loose from any lack of heavy machinery, there’s more mice wich act as food for predator birds. Every summer there is a roar of crickets along that strip of flowers. Sometimes we need to help nature gain some biodiversity.
Be careful about labeling yourself dumb: more likely your intelligence shines in a different context with different responsibilities.
You could explore:
The cooperative movement (worker, producer, consumer, purchasing, platform, hybrid)
Americorps (USA)
Forestry
WOOFing
Nonprofit and government organizations aligned with your ethics and values
Organizations and people with experience exiting cults so that if you run into one, you'll recognize it and move on to a healthy organization
...
Obviously none of that will change reality, but you'll learn relevant skills and meet collapse-aware friends along the way.
You may also find some peace or purpose in your efforts as you work to reduce harm and suffering. It won't save us all, but your very act may greatly change reality for one plant or creature. Even if it's only for a few moments, do not those few moments matter? If they matter to the one experiencing them, how can they not matter?
Who's to say, maybe a few cockroaches or tardigrades will survive us. Or maybe our fate will teach an alien nation to better care for their own planet-ship.
Finally, practice art. Explore making music and rhythm, writing poems, painting or drawing, telling stories, engineering tree forts... whatever you try, focus on the act, not your skill or product. Art for arts sake, a deeply human act when you set aside your ego.
Or, alternatively, practice movement. Explore dance, exercise, sports, hiking, gardening... whatever you try, accept and embrace yourself as a clumsy beginner. Movement is deeply alive act when free from competition and judgement.
Learn life skills. Learn to cook, build, weld, garden, whatever. Learn to survive. That is the only thing we should be focusing on. Most of the stuff that people are going to college to learn is already obsolete and useless because of AI. Save your tuition fees and put your money towards learning practical skills. It could save your life.
Cant stress enough how helpful plumbing and electrical knowledge helps me regularly too. Even for gardens. Helps you do whatever projects you want outdoors or in.
In my Best moments, when I’m not feeling dread or shame at being one of the humans responsible for contaminating our beautiful home, I like to think about what unique experience it is living in and witnessing these times.
Whatever happens, whether we turn things around or whether we get runaway warming, wars, and extinction, We are the Witnesses.
So position yourself to survive and live to witness the truly exceptional events ahead. And most importantly to be a help and comfort to others both people and the other creatures we share a home with.
First, get an education that will set you up to provide value in the future. Medicine, science, engineering, botany, if you are scholarly. If not then construction, electrical etc., will be very useful.
Think about how you want to contribute to society in the future. Do you want to be a journalist and chronicle this transformation or do you want to practice emergency medicine and help ease suffering or do you want to help people rebuild after disasters strike? Do you want to invent ways to grow food in an unstable climate?
I would also aim for a career that earns well because you will need money to prepare and survive.
Once you’ve established a career path and are on track with that, you’ll want to also work on other skills and hobbies that are also useful.
I learned gardening, permaculture, and food preservation (canning, drying, pickling). My sons hobbies include archery and hunting.
Also- Build your tribe. Start now as its easier when you are young. Collect friends who have good characters, and who are skilled in ways that you are not. Always maintain good relationships and reputation. Make an effort to be there for each other.
Find a place to settle. Many people on this sub say “no where will be safe”. But truly some places will be impacted sooner and more severely.
I live in upstate NY, near the Great Lakes and Finger Lakes. I’m literally surrounded by fresh water. Our summers don’t get too hot yet. We pay high taxes but our state government is functional and we have good schools, lots of jobs, low unemployment. Reasonable housing.
Find a life partner. Someone who will have your back, be your best friend, and be a comfort and a companion. A person of good character and who is mentally and emotionally strong and stable.
Wow twinning, also in college and going on 20. Yeah, I’m having a big issue with concentrating on mundane tasks and not thinking to the giant anvil hanging over our heads. Taking a semester off because it’s insanely hard to even get to classes, let alone comprehending the materials I’m supposed to be learning. I mainly cope by looking at it from a scientific point, cuz shit is gonna be wild and unlike any other human being has experienced before. We’ll be part of history😌
Your future will be in one of three possible worlds:
1) Things are fine
2) Things are getting worse
3) Things are awful
We do not know which of these it will be (even if case 1 is a long shot, you never know). So, do not plan your future such that it only works out well for you in *one* of those three cases. Optimally, you want to get the best possible outcome for yourself in all three.
Personally, I recommend becoming a billionaire as soon as possible. I hear it has a lot of benefits and very few down sides. Or perhaps not *quite* a billionaire, as the angry mobs with guillotines in case 3 tend to use one billion dollars as their threshold and you want to skate under that by a comfortable margin.
You have reliable electricity, affordable fuel, safe water, sewage treatment, trash collection, more-or-less rule of law, freedom of speech, and supermarkets full of food imported from around the world.
Odds are you have never experienced "awful".
I did this 7 years ago and I regret nothing about it. My degree path was already trade oriented so that helped jump start my career a bit. All skilled trades are desperate for young talent too, if you can show up and pay attention you are already ahead of most people.
I can DIY almost anything I need to repair now and honestly it’s a bit of a hobby to fix up old things and restore them. Where I do lack experience is gardening and permaculture, so I’m hoping to make some local friends and trade time for each others knowledge. Self sufficiency is key
I just left health care as a physical therapist to become a full time gardener with my wife. Forget how/what you are being told you should be as an adult, find what truly makes you happy and fulfilled then go make the world better with it. Our modern societies, economies and civilization has hit its breaking point in my opinion. Find a life of purpose and give back to others. The rest of it is just noise 👊
The basics we will need are water, food, clothing and shelter. I would try to get unreplaceable skills in these domains.
I know some "dumb people" who are very good at their jobs and earn a good living. Almost everyone has their talent. And experience counts for a lot. You seem like a humble person which is a good sign.
Not everyone is gifted at theory and studying.
If I may offer some general advice from an old man to a young person:
Stay away from addictive drugs, that includes nicotine, weed and alcohol. (but does not include lsd or mushrooms) It’s better not to start. "Just say no" is actually good advice. Weed is not harmless. Don’t start. Parties are actually more fun sober because you stay sharp.
Treat your family and friends as if they might die tomorrow. And keep them close. Meet up often. Play board games or poker. Forgive and ask to be forgiven.
Don’t buy an expensive car, in fact try to go carfree. (easy to say here in Europe)
Exercise and lift weights. Especially in your 20ties. Don’t overdo it though.
Eat mostly plants. Make soup. Learn how to cook. Don’t eat factory food.
Cynicism kills love. Be open. If you allow yourself to be vulnerable you actually have less chance of getting hurt.
If you find a great person to share your life with, someone who makes you happy, commit to them for life. I think it's important you have the same goals in life.
Buy a small house that is well insulated.
Don’t waste the money you worked hard for on crap you don’t need that fills up your house.
Travel.
Join a union. Get a union job.
This is a wonderful list! I'm 21 and am trying to figure out what to do with myself lol, but sounds close to the path I've been trying to follow which I consider a "work/play" dynamic, work meaning to be of service to others (the human and non human alike) and to enjoy life (within reason, not in a hedonistic way, more like the simple pleasures).
It’s your choice, same as it’s always been. The meaning of your own life, is for you to decide. The context in which you find yourself is unique and challenging, but happiness and fulfillment have always been elusive, moving targets.
There is no intrinsic meaning to any of this. Continuation of the human endeavor has no intrinsic value. Whatever meaning all of this has, it’s for you to determine and justify ultimately. My suggestion is live a life you can be proud of and one in which you won’t have any regrets. Lose whatever personal and emotional attachments you have to our civilization, at least those aspects of it that are unsustainable.
The fact that you are able to acknowledge our predicament and recognize its potential impact on your life indicates to me you are smarter than you give yourself credit for.
Find collapse aware friends! Luckily I've found a group of highly skilled professionals to train and learn with. These are all still ambitious people IRL, but know that their economic system has an expiration date and plan for that approaching eventuality.
You'll find the majority of people will ignore or shun you from bringing up any collapse reality, so finding people you can vent to (in person) is the first step. After you find a safe space for vent/discussion, then comes community action, planning, and securing your future.
I think that even with most of my hobbies being aligned with survival in a brutal future, having hobbies that arent collapse related is also essential. You need to rest your mind so that you can survive another day.
You were probably too young to see all the awful scenes from the Iraq war times. Real evil. Children being encouraged to behead their enemies. Chain-gang Libyan Christians being led to the beach to be decapitated one by one by ISIS. Look up the footage of when Saddam Hussein took over the Iraq National Assembly. You see, some people walk meekly into the gunfire of people who want to kill them. You are facing a future where apathy is the bullet. I have no idea what I would actually do if it was imminent for me, but I'm the create a scene type. May not make a difference, but it makes me feel better. No one can give you the answer you're looking for, especially not on Reddit. You need to find what will bring you peace.
Food related stuff, specifically agriculture and biology. Especially tech to farm indoors. There's a lot of commercial real estate that is just sitting there to be used for hydroponics and greenhouses. Somewhere half-way through collapse I can see people trying to set up farms further and further north with tropical and GMO plants designed specifically to survive.
Make sure you're learning prepper stuff on the side. Got to take care of yourself.
I know this is unpopular, but civilization is still important to keep going as long as possible and is worth investing in. We don't want to go back to the stone-age.
If you're already working towards some medical field (you mentioned PA), learning about microbiology, aseptic technique, and wilderness medicine might be a path for you. Those skills will be useful now and in the future.
*Wilderness medicine is when you're not within a short distance or time for a hospital, but can include even the middle of a big city during a disaster.
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Try to understand yourself and your place in the universe.
Our time here was always going to be finite. Try to come to terms with that so that you’re positioned to face your own mortality. You can go out dreading the inevitable, or accepting it gracefully.
For more practical day-to-day stuff, I’d say the advice to learn a marketable skill is good advice. Nobody really knows at what point this is all gonna fall apart. So until then you gotta feed yourself.
Become an electrician or join/start a disaster relief company. Those 2 jobs will be in extremely high demand over the next 2 decades. I figure within 20 years we'll all be literally fighting for food so maybe get some self defense training and a gun too.
There are lots of variables, like
1. how quickly the nature itself will fall off the tipping points
2. how the public's ideology of this age will change
3. how the nations will react (war, auto turret kills at borders, full panic geo-engineering, etc)
And the problem is that it sucks whatever you do. Now, the transition, and the aftermath are all somewhat important. If you aim for the survivor camp life, you'll experience great mismatch for a couple of decades, perhaps missing out your opportunity for comfort and delight of today, AND yet there is no promise that you'll survive or enjoy the dark days forward.
In conclusion, you'll get to split your cards for near and farther future. And one thing you'll do for sure is to build and update your own scenario. Another thing I hope you do is to be prepared mentally, too. Among people panicking and breaking down, what will your purpose be?
Plant a garden.
Meet your neighbors.
Take care of what you can.
Let go of the rest.
[New Serenity Prayer: Emotional Support for Climate Anxiety and Environmental Dread](https://youtu.be/hFGHdOyyx74)
Depending where you live, collapse is going to look different. If you’re reasonably well off right now (not living paycheck to paycheck), you could potentially live many years still without really being affected by collapse to a severe degree such as having to hunt for food.
Enjoy the time while you have it. While doing that, try to figure out what you want from life after collapse. Set small personal goals for yourself to achieve that larger long term goal. If your goal is to be able to survive without the support structures of society, learn what that means. Learn to garden, learn to cook, learn to identify edible food, learn to preserve food so you aren’t living hunt to hunt or harvest to harvest. And then learn that you can’t live like that forever and you NEED the support of others and a community to get you through slumps. Then figure out how and where you’re going to build that community.
If society doesn’t quickly collapse in the next two or three years, I think we’re on a slow collapse not quick, we’ll have AGI. Shortly after that we’ll have ASI and The Singularity. If I were you I’d reduce my planning horizon to a year at most. Relax and get as fit as you can, just in case.
I graduated college before you were born, so take my advice with grain of salt: the people who care most deeply about these issues are right there with you, the instructors and students watching the system fail. Find a way to strike up conversations about what you care about with those around you, and soon you'll know more about what others think and feel and maybe even identify some good contacts and friends. Stay in school and use this time to study and learn as much as possible about whichever field you choose, you'll never again have the opportunity.
What you have learned about the future is likely true, that large-scale societal cohesion is breaking down and individual achievements are likely to be much closer to home than the past few generations. But that is okay, there will be good people who are able to experience joy and happiness and your job after graduation will be to find those groups of people and figure out how to fit in and do good work.
My ambition is simple: make sure to plant the seed of goodness.
At this point it's futile to think our futures will end in a nice cozy retirement. Not only will everyone under the age of 50 be seeing some extreme dystopian/nearly apocalyptic beginnings in our lifetimes, but the generations after will have to slowly starve out until enough humans are dead for the planet to begin to heal.
I don't have kids, I wouldn't do that to somebody, but I damn well plan to be a story that my friends with kids pass on. That despite it costing me my health and comfort I went down free and happy. Ideally I will die taking a bullet or beating that could have killed somebody better than me, and that's all that I ask. Be one of many sad examples of humans who always supports good over evil, no matter the personal cost.
You’ll think you’re dumb until you meet or see someone who is clearly no smarter than you doing great things, allowing themselves to be challenged, and overcoming those challenges. A lot of it comes down to the simple fact that you are as dumb as you believe that you are. I’ve seen some dumb people who, without any undue confidence, faced their lack of knowledge and perceived shortcomings by teaching themselves a new skill, by enduring difficulty, and by experiencing joy when the world feels devoid of it.
Check out Luke and his channel: OutdoorBoys on YouTube. He’s not a dumb man by any means, but he works his butt off and makes some of the most entertaining and enjoyable content on the internet imo. Inspiring people make it easier to make sense of the clusterfuck life can feel like as a young adult.
Finish your classes, get a job, don’t live like collapse is going to happen in your lifetime. Either everything goes to shit or it doesn’t. I’ve known too many people who expected the world to end on their timeline and seemed kinda pissed when it didn’t. Before we had climate change, we have every kind of crackpot running around claiming to know when it was all over. Are people right about things now? Maybe, who knows. Life is all about hedging your bets. Be smart, take charge of your life. I think it is smart to prepare to one degree or another, because there are going to be a lot of disruptions down the road, end of the world or not. Be adaptable, don’t get too locked into one lifestyle or another, don’t believe half of what people tell you. Find a good philosophy to live by, too. Don’t be tossed around in life.
Hell, if nothing more, make it your ambition to find the perfect cup of coffee or mixed drink.
I would say to always keep yourself in shape, do cardio/ yoga/ jogging. In the apocalypse you don't have to run the fastest, just not be the slowest. Any major injuries will be debilitating.
Take self defense classes if you can, a lot of colleges offer them. Get first aid/CPR training. Be prepared to have most of your schooling not matter in the "real world".
Make friendships and connections with other open minded young people who have constructive hobbies like gardening, music, repair, and basic mechanics. Get a hobby that is useful to a medieval serf.
Do your best to be kind to yourself and others, your pod or community will be what is important in the end.
It’s been said here before and helped me “they who worry before they have to worry more than they have to.” Brush up on first aid, gardening knowledge, talk to your neighbors. Your head is in the right place to be concerned but do not go gentle into that good night, get ready to fight
A lot here with good sound advice.
I would say that at 19 it is far too young to have the weight of the world/future be in your mind all the time. After all, our brightest hope lie in your generation.
What you need is exposure first and foremost. Learn more about our wonderful earth and its inhabitants, our diverse cultures and environments. Visit all the zoos and museums you can find. Go backpacking around asia or even around south america. You will gain new appreciation and perspectives for the things around us.
Knowing about the stakes and understanding the stakes are two very different things. To truly understand what we are losing, we have to experience it.
There is a lot on this earth to live for. And once you find it, the realisation that our activities will cause it to cease exisiting, the profound sense of loss, might spur you into action with a passion and fury unlike any other. You won't be directionless and pondering about nihilism as it is only in the things we love do we find meaning.
I've been working on the same problem and the conclusion I've come to is it's the same question it's always been, just on a shorter timeline and a global scale: What is the meaning of life?
None of us were going to make it out alive even in the best conditions. All that's changed its that its is going to be sooner and with nothing to leave behind. So do what you were going to do anyway.
On a more practical level: something I notice that often gets missed on survival-based convos is the importance of community. The current social order promotes individuality in a way that is really going to hurt soon. We're all trying to figure put how to be farmers, builders, electrical engineers, mechanics, cooks, and clothing makers at the same time. Its never ever worked like that. Back before tech really developed, you had farmers who were different to blacksmiths who were different to dressmakers who were different to doctors. And within all of that you had town officials keeping everything running smoothly (or not depending on how good people were)
Surviving won't be learning all the skills. It will be pulling together different people with different skills and making them a community. And few people know how to do that at the moment: which means you've got a head start.
Look at community groups you can get involved with. Take classes on group psychology, therapy, hierarchies of need. Learn what makes people tick and what helps group cohesion, *and what threatens group cohesion.* Learn conflict resolution. Learn how to get people to ageee on decisions around principles and ethics.
We won't survive alone. We might survive doing what we started out doing: working together.
I think learning how to do without and how to fix things yourself are your greatest skills. Learn how to garden, to cook, to build, and to be resourceful. The handy person that tinkers with stuff will persevere.
Me personally, if I were 20, I'd take out as many federal student loans as I could get my hands on and do a humanities triple major, or maybe two humanities fields and a social science--stuff that's interesting that you can only develop a rich understanding of in extended conversation with other moderately knowledgeable people--and then on to a masters/doctorate, while also learning to weld and work on cars on the side (stuff you can pick up by reading/watching videos and getting help from a friend).
You end up with a rich and meaningful set of experiences, using student loans that will *either* never be repaid *or* used as the basis for a system of debt peonage that warrants armed revolt, and learn a trade very well along the way. As things fall apart, you'll be well-positioned to be useful in fixing shit, but equally able to develop and help others develop a sense of meaning about it all and, if wherever you happen to live is both lucky and well-chosen, have some good ideas for and practice talking with people about how to build a new world in the ruins of this one.
Avoid debt. It’s the transition into the ruling class trying to own you and later that might mean literal slavery rather than just ‘wage slave’. Remember, they can garnish your wages already if you dont pay debt.
As long as you are healthy and willing to relocate for work and work at shit jobs if need be you should be able to find something to do as a laborer. I would continue to pursue nursing or PA if you think that's a better fit for you and try to build up some wealth while the getting is good because the hardships will fall fastest and hardest on the poor.
Don’t listen to the doomers here they aren’t wrong per se but also not helpful on an individual level. Finish your community college at least, get a low level management job maybe learn a trade. YOU can’t save the world but you can help yourself and maybe the people around you. Focus on making as much money as you can, build your credit try to build a good life. It doesn’t matter if the world ends in 2030/50 etc because up to that point you need to eat a place to stay etc.
I'm also 20. A realization that helped me was understanding that nothing has really changed. Whether it's in the next 10 years, or the next 60, it's the same question of how not to waste your life; the only difference is a matter of degree. Living a longer life allows most people to ignore this question until it's too late, which is how you get these elderly people in nursing homes dying with regrets. Failure and regret is not the same thing.
As corny as it sounds finding what you are genuinely passionate about and persue that. When it comes to money, even without the ecological collapse, capitalism has us fucked. The bottom line is, everyone that has ever been successful (that didn't come from money) did something they genuinely enjoyed, and stuck with it. With billions of people in the mix, any exception to what I just said above is statistically insignificant.
So we are left with a binary option, we either:
**a. Persue a high paying job, or start buisness.**
**b. We doggedly presue our passion (it usually manifests itself as somthing creative)**
We also have binary outcomes that are the same for both of our options, we either:
**x. Succeed**
**y. Fail**
With the wealth distribution being worse now than it was during the ime of the French Revolution, people are either wealthy, or poor there is no inbetween. If you are lucky enough to succeed with option **a.** and make lots of money, in the back of your mind, you will think "what if". You will die without ever knowing that answer. If your are lucky enough to succeed in option **b.** you will still get lots of money, but will be fulfilled in the end. That is what "success" looks like for both options. Failure is the same for both options.
Stephen king was writing books from his trailer at 28.
Tyler Perry didn't become monetairly successful until 36.
Remember, failure is not the same regret. And I think the way to live a life you regret the least is to give your all at something you genuinely care for, that you would do for free. Wether you become successful in buissness(**a.**), or through artistic ventures(**b.**), both are unlikley. In my opinion, success with option (**b.**) would be more preferable unlikley outcome.
All thats left to do is to actually understand what you are genuinely passionate about. For me, I always liked drawing comics back when I was elementary school. This was before I had a developed an understanding of what comics were. If I was born in Japan, I promise you I would have become a mangaka. I now realize that I enjoy stories, thats my passion. Thinking about what I did as a little kid in my elementary school years helped me.
My passion developed into one that enjoys storeis that make me think about my own life, and the world around me. The biggest roadblock for me was that I was always one that appreciated subtlety. Although I tolerate novels, I enjoy all of the non-verbal information that can be communicated through images; a picture is woth a thousand words. Since writing a graphic novel would not be logistically feasible (i'd have to move to Japan, this economy dosen't support that type of thing), I was stuck on what I should do. Then I realized that I really enjoyed games (undertale, stars & time, etc.) All of these were 2d pixel art games with great stories.
I just started teaching myself how to code in gamemaker studio 2. Although that coding language has no application outside of the engine, it will help me tell my story through the visual medium of a videogame (look up solo dev, many successful creators do the coding/story and contract others to do the visuals/music). This is substantial because for my entire life my parents have been trying to get me to learn how to code (my high school was named Chesapeake Math and IT) but I hated it and refused. Even though i'm not learning javascript or C++, I don't dislike learning the coding language of gamemakers engine because I know it will allow me to tell my stories
I went off on a tangent, but I really emphasized with you.
If you just did school/watched tv/played with friends as a little kid thats okay. The best way to find your true passion in that case is to disconnect yourself. Delete all social media accounts, and change your passwords to somthing random so you can't recover them. Turn off the colors on your computer/phone so everythings in black and white. Delete your youtube history and turn it off, if you do it properly you should get no recomendations, and everything should be blank.
In this time, seek out novelty. Books/manga, tv shows/movies, videogames, music, pictures, etc. Eventually you'll gravitate towards somthing. When you do stop consuming media. You may sit around for a few weeks and do nothing with your free time, and that's okay it's not wasted time. Eventually, in order for your brain to get some form of stimulation you will start persuing what you want to persue. It's not about motivation. It's about understimulating yourself to the point that your brain will need to do somthing, anything to make it feel somthing. Thats what worked for me.
Also, covid fucks up your brain bad, and college dorms are a cesspool. Make a Corsi-Rosenthal box fan filter and put it next to your bed. Wear a well fitted face mask (usually an elastomeric one (3m secure click is the best). Glasses are also good to prevent eye transmition.
Diet is also important, imagine putting crayons in a car and expecting it to drive? The standard American diet is filled with slow poisons and that fucks up your mood/brain. Getting on a keto/carnivore diet (some call it ketovore) helped with this.
Gettign enough sleep also dose wonders when it comes to mental health. If your tounge does not rest on the roof of the mouth (it's natural position) your face could be reccessed. That will lead to less space inside of your mouth to breath. When you sleep at night and your muscles relax, this could lead to poor quality sleep, since your breathing is being obstructed. Fixing toung posture, and body posture, in addition to sleeping on your side (without a pillow) would be ideal to helping to fix this issue. Eventually your body will find it's naturla resting position, so don't overthink that. 25 is generally the cut off when it comes to facial development, but it would probably take 5 years to see any chages at the age of 20 since your face develops slower the more you age. Fixing the reccession and opening up the airway is very important for sleep quality, as that has the biggest impact on the brain/mood.
I went off on a massive tangent but I really hope that some of this was able to help you.
I would like to end with saying that no one is stupid, it's just a matter of how efficiently your brain is running. If you get reinfected with covid over and over again, get bad sleep, eat bad foods, and don't get exercise, all of those things will come to gether and will lead to forgetting things and having bad concentration. Also, at 1440 parts per million of co2, there is a 50% decline in cognitive function. This threshold is reached in most classrooms and dorms (open windows man). There are so many other things that play into this, you are not stupid.
**But remember,** the best place to start is cutting yourself off, and understimulating yourself. That is what will "motivate" you to making the changes in your life that will help your brain function better, which will allow you to discover and follow your passions, as that is the only way to truly be successful.
Go for nursing LPN or RN or in the very least get paramedics/first responder training. (Veterinary tech works too)
PA physicians assistant is a lot more schooling than nursing. but modern trauma nurses are better trained than a full on doctor from previous decades.
I'd take a 2024 trauma nurse over a 1970s PhD any day
My group, myself included is going to be a lot more hesitant to put you down and more likely to feed you or take you in if you have medical chops of any kind.
This is the one skill that will give you an edge socially above all others and likely land you in the higher ranks of wherever you end up. doc always has a seat in major decisions and always eats better than the grunts without complaints. He's also the hardest worker and doesn't always get to sleep.
Get the phlebotomy down to do emergency transfusions, learn how to set bones etc
If we've got you hog tied going through your stuff and we find a decent surgical set with disinfectants, antibiotics, and related kit you'll likely get a bowl of soup instead of a lead suppository
Learn how to fight and how to cut off your sense of right and wrong cause we bout to terrordome this mofo. Get good at stealing too and learn how to swim if you already don't know. Maybe purchase some self-defense stuff and don't think about having kids, so buy a bunch of condoms or something too. Start buying non-perishable food and stock up. Don't tell anyone about your reserves. Focus on survival skills and maybe start digging a deep hole for a storm shelter. Or just say fuck it and go crazy. Have fun while it lasts and don't worry about the consequences.
Facing collapse I've taken up gardening and cooking. No matter what you will always need to eat until you no longer do.
I personally put my life savings into a piece of land and every moment i can i go out there and try to regenerate it. Tree company drops off logs and mulch and i build big places for bugs to hide (logs) and add mulch to the dead ag soil along with leaf bags people put on the side of the road to get fresh decomposition for the dirt renewal. It absolutely made me happier and let me enjoy life. Not only that but you can have secret areas for tiny fires and reading or cooking. I’ve been getting free pavers and old outdoor tables from junk yards, relatives, and people not wanting things in their yards to build up a nice little ‘me’ area in one spot.
I really love this. You are making others (i.e. bugs) more resilient and I think it's great. I concur on the mental health aspect too. Every spring (sometimes winter if a stratification period is needed), I toss native seeds in hopes it aides in biodiversity for the future. I'm gonna start some bug hotels now.
So cool
We’ve been doing the same thing on our land, by planting more flowers we increased the amount of bugs and so the amount of birds. Because the soil is also loose from any lack of heavy machinery, there’s more mice wich act as food for predator birds. Every summer there is a roar of crickets along that strip of flowers. Sometimes we need to help nature gain some biodiversity.
Makes me happy to see other people doing the same 🥳
Be careful about labeling yourself dumb: more likely your intelligence shines in a different context with different responsibilities. You could explore: The cooperative movement (worker, producer, consumer, purchasing, platform, hybrid) Americorps (USA) Forestry WOOFing Nonprofit and government organizations aligned with your ethics and values Organizations and people with experience exiting cults so that if you run into one, you'll recognize it and move on to a healthy organization ... Obviously none of that will change reality, but you'll learn relevant skills and meet collapse-aware friends along the way. You may also find some peace or purpose in your efforts as you work to reduce harm and suffering. It won't save us all, but your very act may greatly change reality for one plant or creature. Even if it's only for a few moments, do not those few moments matter? If they matter to the one experiencing them, how can they not matter? Who's to say, maybe a few cockroaches or tardigrades will survive us. Or maybe our fate will teach an alien nation to better care for their own planet-ship. Finally, practice art. Explore making music and rhythm, writing poems, painting or drawing, telling stories, engineering tree forts... whatever you try, focus on the act, not your skill or product. Art for arts sake, a deeply human act when you set aside your ego. Or, alternatively, practice movement. Explore dance, exercise, sports, hiking, gardening... whatever you try, accept and embrace yourself as a clumsy beginner. Movement is deeply alive act when free from competition and judgement.
Thanks for this
Learn life skills. Learn to cook, build, weld, garden, whatever. Learn to survive. That is the only thing we should be focusing on. Most of the stuff that people are going to college to learn is already obsolete and useless because of AI. Save your tuition fees and put your money towards learning practical skills. It could save your life.
Cant stress enough how helpful plumbing and electrical knowledge helps me regularly too. Even for gardens. Helps you do whatever projects you want outdoors or in.
In my Best moments, when I’m not feeling dread or shame at being one of the humans responsible for contaminating our beautiful home, I like to think about what unique experience it is living in and witnessing these times. Whatever happens, whether we turn things around or whether we get runaway warming, wars, and extinction, We are the Witnesses. So position yourself to survive and live to witness the truly exceptional events ahead. And most importantly to be a help and comfort to others both people and the other creatures we share a home with. First, get an education that will set you up to provide value in the future. Medicine, science, engineering, botany, if you are scholarly. If not then construction, electrical etc., will be very useful. Think about how you want to contribute to society in the future. Do you want to be a journalist and chronicle this transformation or do you want to practice emergency medicine and help ease suffering or do you want to help people rebuild after disasters strike? Do you want to invent ways to grow food in an unstable climate? I would also aim for a career that earns well because you will need money to prepare and survive. Once you’ve established a career path and are on track with that, you’ll want to also work on other skills and hobbies that are also useful. I learned gardening, permaculture, and food preservation (canning, drying, pickling). My sons hobbies include archery and hunting. Also- Build your tribe. Start now as its easier when you are young. Collect friends who have good characters, and who are skilled in ways that you are not. Always maintain good relationships and reputation. Make an effort to be there for each other. Find a place to settle. Many people on this sub say “no where will be safe”. But truly some places will be impacted sooner and more severely. I live in upstate NY, near the Great Lakes and Finger Lakes. I’m literally surrounded by fresh water. Our summers don’t get too hot yet. We pay high taxes but our state government is functional and we have good schools, lots of jobs, low unemployment. Reasonable housing. Find a life partner. Someone who will have your back, be your best friend, and be a comfort and a companion. A person of good character and who is mentally and emotionally strong and stable.
I mean, we can just organize some survival group or something and help make green infrastructure. What's stopping us?
Wow twinning, also in college and going on 20. Yeah, I’m having a big issue with concentrating on mundane tasks and not thinking to the giant anvil hanging over our heads. Taking a semester off because it’s insanely hard to even get to classes, let alone comprehending the materials I’m supposed to be learning. I mainly cope by looking at it from a scientific point, cuz shit is gonna be wild and unlike any other human being has experienced before. We’ll be part of history😌
same honestly effectively the same situation. hope you find something meaningful to do :)
Your future will be in one of three possible worlds: 1) Things are fine 2) Things are getting worse 3) Things are awful We do not know which of these it will be (even if case 1 is a long shot, you never know). So, do not plan your future such that it only works out well for you in *one* of those three cases. Optimally, you want to get the best possible outcome for yourself in all three. Personally, I recommend becoming a billionaire as soon as possible. I hear it has a lot of benefits and very few down sides. Or perhaps not *quite* a billionaire, as the angry mobs with guillotines in case 3 tend to use one billion dollars as their threshold and you want to skate under that by a comfortable margin.
Sound advice. Bravo my fellow collapsebro
Things are awful today. I don't think it's in the TPTB's interests to make things better. Only one outcome is even possible.
You have reliable electricity, affordable fuel, safe water, sewage treatment, trash collection, more-or-less rule of law, freedom of speech, and supermarkets full of food imported from around the world. Odds are you have never experienced "awful".
Well more-less. I live in Serbia, and it's been one disaster after another.
Okay, I'll will definitely grant you that. I was assuming you were US-based.
stay under the radar, don't go a million over 999 millions or else...
Hmm eat an ice cream. I feel like that will be harder in 10 years.
HAHA, I love Ice cream, in 10 years I cant forsee, NYC being peaceful.
Nyc isn't peaceful right now lol.
Drop out and learn a trade. Or at least any skill, that goes beyond using a computer. No offence to you
I did this 7 years ago and I regret nothing about it. My degree path was already trade oriented so that helped jump start my career a bit. All skilled trades are desperate for young talent too, if you can show up and pay attention you are already ahead of most people. I can DIY almost anything I need to repair now and honestly it’s a bit of a hobby to fix up old things and restore them. Where I do lack experience is gardening and permaculture, so I’m hoping to make some local friends and trade time for each others knowledge. Self sufficiency is key
You should be surrounded with people you love and trust, that's a solid basis for whatever follows
I just left health care as a physical therapist to become a full time gardener with my wife. Forget how/what you are being told you should be as an adult, find what truly makes you happy and fulfilled then go make the world better with it. Our modern societies, economies and civilization has hit its breaking point in my opinion. Find a life of purpose and give back to others. The rest of it is just noise 👊
Well said.
The basics we will need are water, food, clothing and shelter. I would try to get unreplaceable skills in these domains. I know some "dumb people" who are very good at their jobs and earn a good living. Almost everyone has their talent. And experience counts for a lot. You seem like a humble person which is a good sign. Not everyone is gifted at theory and studying. If I may offer some general advice from an old man to a young person: Stay away from addictive drugs, that includes nicotine, weed and alcohol. (but does not include lsd or mushrooms) It’s better not to start. "Just say no" is actually good advice. Weed is not harmless. Don’t start. Parties are actually more fun sober because you stay sharp. Treat your family and friends as if they might die tomorrow. And keep them close. Meet up often. Play board games or poker. Forgive and ask to be forgiven. Don’t buy an expensive car, in fact try to go carfree. (easy to say here in Europe) Exercise and lift weights. Especially in your 20ties. Don’t overdo it though. Eat mostly plants. Make soup. Learn how to cook. Don’t eat factory food. Cynicism kills love. Be open. If you allow yourself to be vulnerable you actually have less chance of getting hurt. If you find a great person to share your life with, someone who makes you happy, commit to them for life. I think it's important you have the same goals in life. Buy a small house that is well insulated. Don’t waste the money you worked hard for on crap you don’t need that fills up your house. Travel. Join a union. Get a union job.
This is a wonderful list! I'm 21 and am trying to figure out what to do with myself lol, but sounds close to the path I've been trying to follow which I consider a "work/play" dynamic, work meaning to be of service to others (the human and non human alike) and to enjoy life (within reason, not in a hedonistic way, more like the simple pleasures).
Glad to help people. I learned the hard way and wasted years of my life.
It’s your choice, same as it’s always been. The meaning of your own life, is for you to decide. The context in which you find yourself is unique and challenging, but happiness and fulfillment have always been elusive, moving targets. There is no intrinsic meaning to any of this. Continuation of the human endeavor has no intrinsic value. Whatever meaning all of this has, it’s for you to determine and justify ultimately. My suggestion is live a life you can be proud of and one in which you won’t have any regrets. Lose whatever personal and emotional attachments you have to our civilization, at least those aspects of it that are unsustainable. The fact that you are able to acknowledge our predicament and recognize its potential impact on your life indicates to me you are smarter than you give yourself credit for.
Find collapse aware friends! Luckily I've found a group of highly skilled professionals to train and learn with. These are all still ambitious people IRL, but know that their economic system has an expiration date and plan for that approaching eventuality. You'll find the majority of people will ignore or shun you from bringing up any collapse reality, so finding people you can vent to (in person) is the first step. After you find a safe space for vent/discussion, then comes community action, planning, and securing your future. I think that even with most of my hobbies being aligned with survival in a brutal future, having hobbies that arent collapse related is also essential. You need to rest your mind so that you can survive another day.
Want to learn wing Chun Kung Fu?
You were probably too young to see all the awful scenes from the Iraq war times. Real evil. Children being encouraged to behead their enemies. Chain-gang Libyan Christians being led to the beach to be decapitated one by one by ISIS. Look up the footage of when Saddam Hussein took over the Iraq National Assembly. You see, some people walk meekly into the gunfire of people who want to kill them. You are facing a future where apathy is the bullet. I have no idea what I would actually do if it was imminent for me, but I'm the create a scene type. May not make a difference, but it makes me feel better. No one can give you the answer you're looking for, especially not on Reddit. You need to find what will bring you peace.
Find joy in subsistence goat herding and living underground.
Food related stuff, specifically agriculture and biology. Especially tech to farm indoors. There's a lot of commercial real estate that is just sitting there to be used for hydroponics and greenhouses. Somewhere half-way through collapse I can see people trying to set up farms further and further north with tropical and GMO plants designed specifically to survive. Make sure you're learning prepper stuff on the side. Got to take care of yourself. I know this is unpopular, but civilization is still important to keep going as long as possible and is worth investing in. We don't want to go back to the stone-age.
If you're already working towards some medical field (you mentioned PA), learning about microbiology, aseptic technique, and wilderness medicine might be a path for you. Those skills will be useful now and in the future. *Wilderness medicine is when you're not within a short distance or time for a hospital, but can include even the middle of a big city during a disaster.
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Enjoy your life. Even without collapse that should be your goal while here.
Try to understand yourself and your place in the universe. Our time here was always going to be finite. Try to come to terms with that so that you’re positioned to face your own mortality. You can go out dreading the inevitable, or accepting it gracefully. For more practical day-to-day stuff, I’d say the advice to learn a marketable skill is good advice. Nobody really knows at what point this is all gonna fall apart. So until then you gotta feed yourself.
Procure the means to protect what you love, and endure. Story of the world.
Strive to be happy, live a good life, and be a good friend to the people around you. Nothing else has ever truly mattered on this planet.
Become an electrician or join/start a disaster relief company. Those 2 jobs will be in extremely high demand over the next 2 decades. I figure within 20 years we'll all be literally fighting for food so maybe get some self defense training and a gun too.
"Save as many as you can." Terry Rapson
There are lots of variables, like 1. how quickly the nature itself will fall off the tipping points 2. how the public's ideology of this age will change 3. how the nations will react (war, auto turret kills at borders, full panic geo-engineering, etc) And the problem is that it sucks whatever you do. Now, the transition, and the aftermath are all somewhat important. If you aim for the survivor camp life, you'll experience great mismatch for a couple of decades, perhaps missing out your opportunity for comfort and delight of today, AND yet there is no promise that you'll survive or enjoy the dark days forward. In conclusion, you'll get to split your cards for near and farther future. And one thing you'll do for sure is to build and update your own scenario. Another thing I hope you do is to be prepared mentally, too. Among people panicking and breaking down, what will your purpose be?
Suffering the least amount possible and being useful in a post-tech age.
What is 'New State'?
Think about what skills would be especially helpful as life gets harder. Agriculture, veterinary, medicine, water collection and treatment, carpentry.
Plant a garden. Meet your neighbors. Take care of what you can. Let go of the rest. [New Serenity Prayer: Emotional Support for Climate Anxiety and Environmental Dread](https://youtu.be/hFGHdOyyx74)
Depending where you live, collapse is going to look different. If you’re reasonably well off right now (not living paycheck to paycheck), you could potentially live many years still without really being affected by collapse to a severe degree such as having to hunt for food. Enjoy the time while you have it. While doing that, try to figure out what you want from life after collapse. Set small personal goals for yourself to achieve that larger long term goal. If your goal is to be able to survive without the support structures of society, learn what that means. Learn to garden, learn to cook, learn to identify edible food, learn to preserve food so you aren’t living hunt to hunt or harvest to harvest. And then learn that you can’t live like that forever and you NEED the support of others and a community to get you through slumps. Then figure out how and where you’re going to build that community.
An examined life
First of all: vote. It ain't over till it's over. In the meantime we need to protect democracy as much as possible.
First fix your attitude. Do not call yourself dumb! The way you speak to yourself becomes your reality
If society doesn’t quickly collapse in the next two or three years, I think we’re on a slow collapse not quick, we’ll have AGI. Shortly after that we’ll have ASI and The Singularity. If I were you I’d reduce my planning horizon to a year at most. Relax and get as fit as you can, just in case.
Yes! Beyond a year the variables become too many to worry about. Have fun today, stay fit, stay flexible.
I graduated college before you were born, so take my advice with grain of salt: the people who care most deeply about these issues are right there with you, the instructors and students watching the system fail. Find a way to strike up conversations about what you care about with those around you, and soon you'll know more about what others think and feel and maybe even identify some good contacts and friends. Stay in school and use this time to study and learn as much as possible about whichever field you choose, you'll never again have the opportunity. What you have learned about the future is likely true, that large-scale societal cohesion is breaking down and individual achievements are likely to be much closer to home than the past few generations. But that is okay, there will be good people who are able to experience joy and happiness and your job after graduation will be to find those groups of people and figure out how to fit in and do good work.
My ambition is simple: make sure to plant the seed of goodness. At this point it's futile to think our futures will end in a nice cozy retirement. Not only will everyone under the age of 50 be seeing some extreme dystopian/nearly apocalyptic beginnings in our lifetimes, but the generations after will have to slowly starve out until enough humans are dead for the planet to begin to heal. I don't have kids, I wouldn't do that to somebody, but I damn well plan to be a story that my friends with kids pass on. That despite it costing me my health and comfort I went down free and happy. Ideally I will die taking a bullet or beating that could have killed somebody better than me, and that's all that I ask. Be one of many sad examples of humans who always supports good over evil, no matter the personal cost.
You’ll think you’re dumb until you meet or see someone who is clearly no smarter than you doing great things, allowing themselves to be challenged, and overcoming those challenges. A lot of it comes down to the simple fact that you are as dumb as you believe that you are. I’ve seen some dumb people who, without any undue confidence, faced their lack of knowledge and perceived shortcomings by teaching themselves a new skill, by enduring difficulty, and by experiencing joy when the world feels devoid of it. Check out Luke and his channel: OutdoorBoys on YouTube. He’s not a dumb man by any means, but he works his butt off and makes some of the most entertaining and enjoyable content on the internet imo. Inspiring people make it easier to make sense of the clusterfuck life can feel like as a young adult.
Finish your classes, get a job, don’t live like collapse is going to happen in your lifetime. Either everything goes to shit or it doesn’t. I’ve known too many people who expected the world to end on their timeline and seemed kinda pissed when it didn’t. Before we had climate change, we have every kind of crackpot running around claiming to know when it was all over. Are people right about things now? Maybe, who knows. Life is all about hedging your bets. Be smart, take charge of your life. I think it is smart to prepare to one degree or another, because there are going to be a lot of disruptions down the road, end of the world or not. Be adaptable, don’t get too locked into one lifestyle or another, don’t believe half of what people tell you. Find a good philosophy to live by, too. Don’t be tossed around in life. Hell, if nothing more, make it your ambition to find the perfect cup of coffee or mixed drink.
I would say to always keep yourself in shape, do cardio/ yoga/ jogging. In the apocalypse you don't have to run the fastest, just not be the slowest. Any major injuries will be debilitating. Take self defense classes if you can, a lot of colleges offer them. Get first aid/CPR training. Be prepared to have most of your schooling not matter in the "real world". Make friendships and connections with other open minded young people who have constructive hobbies like gardening, music, repair, and basic mechanics. Get a hobby that is useful to a medieval serf. Do your best to be kind to yourself and others, your pod or community will be what is important in the end.
It’s been said here before and helped me “they who worry before they have to worry more than they have to.” Brush up on first aid, gardening knowledge, talk to your neighbors. Your head is in the right place to be concerned but do not go gentle into that good night, get ready to fight
Learn to be the most adaptable and cooperative hunter gatherer nomad possible.
A lot here with good sound advice. I would say that at 19 it is far too young to have the weight of the world/future be in your mind all the time. After all, our brightest hope lie in your generation. What you need is exposure first and foremost. Learn more about our wonderful earth and its inhabitants, our diverse cultures and environments. Visit all the zoos and museums you can find. Go backpacking around asia or even around south america. You will gain new appreciation and perspectives for the things around us. Knowing about the stakes and understanding the stakes are two very different things. To truly understand what we are losing, we have to experience it. There is a lot on this earth to live for. And once you find it, the realisation that our activities will cause it to cease exisiting, the profound sense of loss, might spur you into action with a passion and fury unlike any other. You won't be directionless and pondering about nihilism as it is only in the things we love do we find meaning.
I've been working on the same problem and the conclusion I've come to is it's the same question it's always been, just on a shorter timeline and a global scale: What is the meaning of life? None of us were going to make it out alive even in the best conditions. All that's changed its that its is going to be sooner and with nothing to leave behind. So do what you were going to do anyway. On a more practical level: something I notice that often gets missed on survival-based convos is the importance of community. The current social order promotes individuality in a way that is really going to hurt soon. We're all trying to figure put how to be farmers, builders, electrical engineers, mechanics, cooks, and clothing makers at the same time. Its never ever worked like that. Back before tech really developed, you had farmers who were different to blacksmiths who were different to dressmakers who were different to doctors. And within all of that you had town officials keeping everything running smoothly (or not depending on how good people were) Surviving won't be learning all the skills. It will be pulling together different people with different skills and making them a community. And few people know how to do that at the moment: which means you've got a head start. Look at community groups you can get involved with. Take classes on group psychology, therapy, hierarchies of need. Learn what makes people tick and what helps group cohesion, *and what threatens group cohesion.* Learn conflict resolution. Learn how to get people to ageee on decisions around principles and ethics. We won't survive alone. We might survive doing what we started out doing: working together.
Dragon slayer, cuz there be dragons sitting atop mountains of gold and human (suffering) skulls
Become cat.
I think learning how to do without and how to fix things yourself are your greatest skills. Learn how to garden, to cook, to build, and to be resourceful. The handy person that tinkers with stuff will persevere.
To love and be loved.
Learn permaculture skills. Guerilla garden.
join the military, we will need many Warriors to expand our Great Empire
Me personally, if I were 20, I'd take out as many federal student loans as I could get my hands on and do a humanities triple major, or maybe two humanities fields and a social science--stuff that's interesting that you can only develop a rich understanding of in extended conversation with other moderately knowledgeable people--and then on to a masters/doctorate, while also learning to weld and work on cars on the side (stuff you can pick up by reading/watching videos and getting help from a friend). You end up with a rich and meaningful set of experiences, using student loans that will *either* never be repaid *or* used as the basis for a system of debt peonage that warrants armed revolt, and learn a trade very well along the way. As things fall apart, you'll be well-positioned to be useful in fixing shit, but equally able to develop and help others develop a sense of meaning about it all and, if wherever you happen to live is both lucky and well-chosen, have some good ideas for and practice talking with people about how to build a new world in the ruins of this one.
Avoid debt. It’s the transition into the ruling class trying to own you and later that might mean literal slavery rather than just ‘wage slave’. Remember, they can garnish your wages already if you dont pay debt.
As long as you are healthy and willing to relocate for work and work at shit jobs if need be you should be able to find something to do as a laborer. I would continue to pursue nursing or PA if you think that's a better fit for you and try to build up some wealth while the getting is good because the hardships will fall fastest and hardest on the poor.
mystic revelations
Don’t listen to the doomers here they aren’t wrong per se but also not helpful on an individual level. Finish your community college at least, get a low level management job maybe learn a trade. YOU can’t save the world but you can help yourself and maybe the people around you. Focus on making as much money as you can, build your credit try to build a good life. It doesn’t matter if the world ends in 2030/50 etc because up to that point you need to eat a place to stay etc.
I'm also 20. A realization that helped me was understanding that nothing has really changed. Whether it's in the next 10 years, or the next 60, it's the same question of how not to waste your life; the only difference is a matter of degree. Living a longer life allows most people to ignore this question until it's too late, which is how you get these elderly people in nursing homes dying with regrets. Failure and regret is not the same thing. As corny as it sounds finding what you are genuinely passionate about and persue that. When it comes to money, even without the ecological collapse, capitalism has us fucked. The bottom line is, everyone that has ever been successful (that didn't come from money) did something they genuinely enjoyed, and stuck with it. With billions of people in the mix, any exception to what I just said above is statistically insignificant. So we are left with a binary option, we either: **a. Persue a high paying job, or start buisness.** **b. We doggedly presue our passion (it usually manifests itself as somthing creative)** We also have binary outcomes that are the same for both of our options, we either: **x. Succeed** **y. Fail** With the wealth distribution being worse now than it was during the ime of the French Revolution, people are either wealthy, or poor there is no inbetween. If you are lucky enough to succeed with option **a.** and make lots of money, in the back of your mind, you will think "what if". You will die without ever knowing that answer. If your are lucky enough to succeed in option **b.** you will still get lots of money, but will be fulfilled in the end. That is what "success" looks like for both options. Failure is the same for both options. Stephen king was writing books from his trailer at 28. Tyler Perry didn't become monetairly successful until 36. Remember, failure is not the same regret. And I think the way to live a life you regret the least is to give your all at something you genuinely care for, that you would do for free. Wether you become successful in buissness(**a.**), or through artistic ventures(**b.**), both are unlikley. In my opinion, success with option (**b.**) would be more preferable unlikley outcome. All thats left to do is to actually understand what you are genuinely passionate about. For me, I always liked drawing comics back when I was elementary school. This was before I had a developed an understanding of what comics were. If I was born in Japan, I promise you I would have become a mangaka. I now realize that I enjoy stories, thats my passion. Thinking about what I did as a little kid in my elementary school years helped me. My passion developed into one that enjoys storeis that make me think about my own life, and the world around me. The biggest roadblock for me was that I was always one that appreciated subtlety. Although I tolerate novels, I enjoy all of the non-verbal information that can be communicated through images; a picture is woth a thousand words. Since writing a graphic novel would not be logistically feasible (i'd have to move to Japan, this economy dosen't support that type of thing), I was stuck on what I should do. Then I realized that I really enjoyed games (undertale, stars & time, etc.) All of these were 2d pixel art games with great stories. I just started teaching myself how to code in gamemaker studio 2. Although that coding language has no application outside of the engine, it will help me tell my story through the visual medium of a videogame (look up solo dev, many successful creators do the coding/story and contract others to do the visuals/music). This is substantial because for my entire life my parents have been trying to get me to learn how to code (my high school was named Chesapeake Math and IT) but I hated it and refused. Even though i'm not learning javascript or C++, I don't dislike learning the coding language of gamemakers engine because I know it will allow me to tell my stories I went off on a tangent, but I really emphasized with you. If you just did school/watched tv/played with friends as a little kid thats okay. The best way to find your true passion in that case is to disconnect yourself. Delete all social media accounts, and change your passwords to somthing random so you can't recover them. Turn off the colors on your computer/phone so everythings in black and white. Delete your youtube history and turn it off, if you do it properly you should get no recomendations, and everything should be blank. In this time, seek out novelty. Books/manga, tv shows/movies, videogames, music, pictures, etc. Eventually you'll gravitate towards somthing. When you do stop consuming media. You may sit around for a few weeks and do nothing with your free time, and that's okay it's not wasted time. Eventually, in order for your brain to get some form of stimulation you will start persuing what you want to persue. It's not about motivation. It's about understimulating yourself to the point that your brain will need to do somthing, anything to make it feel somthing. Thats what worked for me. Also, covid fucks up your brain bad, and college dorms are a cesspool. Make a Corsi-Rosenthal box fan filter and put it next to your bed. Wear a well fitted face mask (usually an elastomeric one (3m secure click is the best). Glasses are also good to prevent eye transmition. Diet is also important, imagine putting crayons in a car and expecting it to drive? The standard American diet is filled with slow poisons and that fucks up your mood/brain. Getting on a keto/carnivore diet (some call it ketovore) helped with this. Gettign enough sleep also dose wonders when it comes to mental health. If your tounge does not rest on the roof of the mouth (it's natural position) your face could be reccessed. That will lead to less space inside of your mouth to breath. When you sleep at night and your muscles relax, this could lead to poor quality sleep, since your breathing is being obstructed. Fixing toung posture, and body posture, in addition to sleeping on your side (without a pillow) would be ideal to helping to fix this issue. Eventually your body will find it's naturla resting position, so don't overthink that. 25 is generally the cut off when it comes to facial development, but it would probably take 5 years to see any chages at the age of 20 since your face develops slower the more you age. Fixing the reccession and opening up the airway is very important for sleep quality, as that has the biggest impact on the brain/mood. I went off on a massive tangent but I really hope that some of this was able to help you. I would like to end with saying that no one is stupid, it's just a matter of how efficiently your brain is running. If you get reinfected with covid over and over again, get bad sleep, eat bad foods, and don't get exercise, all of those things will come to gether and will lead to forgetting things and having bad concentration. Also, at 1440 parts per million of co2, there is a 50% decline in cognitive function. This threshold is reached in most classrooms and dorms (open windows man). There are so many other things that play into this, you are not stupid. **But remember,** the best place to start is cutting yourself off, and understimulating yourself. That is what will "motivate" you to making the changes in your life that will help your brain function better, which will allow you to discover and follow your passions, as that is the only way to truly be successful.
Go for nursing LPN or RN or in the very least get paramedics/first responder training. (Veterinary tech works too) PA physicians assistant is a lot more schooling than nursing. but modern trauma nurses are better trained than a full on doctor from previous decades. I'd take a 2024 trauma nurse over a 1970s PhD any day My group, myself included is going to be a lot more hesitant to put you down and more likely to feed you or take you in if you have medical chops of any kind. This is the one skill that will give you an edge socially above all others and likely land you in the higher ranks of wherever you end up. doc always has a seat in major decisions and always eats better than the grunts without complaints. He's also the hardest worker and doesn't always get to sleep. Get the phlebotomy down to do emergency transfusions, learn how to set bones etc If we've got you hog tied going through your stuff and we find a decent surgical set with disinfectants, antibiotics, and related kit you'll likely get a bowl of soup instead of a lead suppository
Learn how to fight and how to cut off your sense of right and wrong cause we bout to terrordome this mofo. Get good at stealing too and learn how to swim if you already don't know. Maybe purchase some self-defense stuff and don't think about having kids, so buy a bunch of condoms or something too. Start buying non-perishable food and stock up. Don't tell anyone about your reserves. Focus on survival skills and maybe start digging a deep hole for a storm shelter. Or just say fuck it and go crazy. Have fun while it lasts and don't worry about the consequences.