Potato potato…

Not exactly. I get OP’s point. I’m 25 so I’ve experienced both, and they weren’t the same for me.

School is more about the experience and the journey than the results, or at least that’s what it feels like. It’s the place where you get to spend time and joke around with your friends while developing knowledge together. Your teachers form genuine connections with you, and most of them do care about your well-being and development. If you’re lucky, you get to have a mini party on your ride home with fellow students singing and dancing on the school bus. You get to go on fun outings and field trips. You’re ultimately responsible for no one but yourself, and every day yoy learn something new.

With work, there’s a very hostile environment. Everyone has a huge ego problem, your boss makes it clear that they’re not your friend, you’re forced to collaborate and be friendly to your colleagues even though you may not like some. You can’t just decide to take a day off because clients and colleagues are depending on you. It can be monotonous and stressful. Your only social activities are probably icebreakers or eating out on a day that’s supposed to be relaxing (like Christmas holidays and whenever you’re nearby). You have other responsibilities when you get home as well, which aren’t a sports club or music lessons but chores and admin stuff.

I know not everyone’s experience is the same. For some, school is where they met their worst bully and had a miserable time whereas work was where they met their best friend and had fun. This is just me explaining why I relate to OP in our view of school vs work.

School didn’t even feel obligatory for me, it was just a planned fun day. I enjoyed most of it: the teachers, the students, the timings, the duties. I even enjoyed some of the homework (and I hate the idea of homework)! There were little tasks that seemed exciting like taking the attendance to the administration’s office, going around picking up each class’s donations and consent forms, decorating the classroom door for the Christmas competition, getting the keys for the teacher from their staffroom, going next door to borrow a marker, doing group presentations, and being my turn to read the class book, and so on. Work usually lacks these little everyday tasks and just focuses on earning the company money and being professional. It kills joy and personality.

A couple of reasons, besides the obvious:

• It promotes brainrot and discourages us from being creative and doing real research ourselves. It may take longer but manual development is more valuable and unique.

• It warps our perception of reality. With the way LLMs word their answers, they seem really convincing. Later you might realise it was actually wrong or only partially correct. This is problematic when users search for mental health advice, career planning, legal advice, etc.

• Many, including the American government, use AI-generated slop to spread propaganda and misinformation more effectively than ever. It’s scary just thinking about how many people can’t recognise the difference between AI and real, and those are usually the ones voting against the collective good of society.

• It’s just not worth it. It makes mistakes, it hallucinates, it forgets… With the time we spend trying to get the AI model to generate what we need in attempt to skip the hard work or the knowledgeable, we might probably be able to do a proper piece of work if we put in the effort. When ChatGPT first came out, I admittedly used it a lot for my assignments, and I would say it was more hindering than useful. At the end of the day, I didn’t learn anything and I wasn’t satisfied with the work. “If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself.”

Not that i’d ever want to talk to him, but I wonder what he thought of death given his wealth, power, and apparent obsession with eugenics, and the fact that he was facing life imprisonment. I wonder if he evee even thought about how long he wanted to live or how he would go.

Honestly, same. She’s not as radical as yours, but I had this idea that my mum was clever, sensible, and capable of critical thought. She used to read a lot, made better political arguments compared to my dad, and somehow managed to raise her children into smart individuals. The combination of me growing up, her getting addicted to Facebook, and the pandemic warped my perception of who my mum really was. She forms emotionally-driven opinions, she jumps to conclusions, she’s gullible, and she’s close-minded.

I don’t think she would ever justify killing someone, but she’s suddenly anti-vax, she’s anti-choice and would vote for anyone who vows to maintain that culture, she’s obsessed with drag queens and transgender people, and she gets her news from Facebook. All of her comments involve the phrase, “I’ve seen the comments on Facebook.”

In 2024, I decided to cut contact with her because she kept spreading misinformation and sharing petition links to ban gender-affirming care. And in addition to that, she was preaching about the Olympic ceremony being blasphemous and “woke.” My reason for going no-contact with her was that I couldn’t bring myself to maintain a relationship with someone who made other people’s lives dangerous. Everyone took her side and accused me of causing a drift and being immature because I couldn’t handle other people’s opinions, apparently.

I ended up talking to her again after a couple of months because I visited my family and I couldn’t avoid her. She was going through a tough time and she was crying so I gave in. I still have a relationship with her but only because I actively choose to live as if I don’t know those details about my mum. She’s otherwise a good person; she donates to charity and she cares about democracy, the environment, and her children. But whenever I remember the kind opinions that she has, I get angry all over again. It sucks because she was indeed more sensible, but her brain got rotten by social media…

You described it perfectly! I resonate so much with the feeling of the sun on your skin. When I visualise myself in a peaceful place, I imagine myself running through a field of tall grass with the sun’s warmth on my skin.

If you don’t mind me asking, how come you stopped taking them? I’m asking because I can’t imagine my life without them now that I’ve learned of the difference they make. I’ve tried grounding techniques and journalling but they never helped quite as much as the medication did, so I can’t rely on those methods.

Love how it says “latest” because there’s been more than one 🙃 People of Minnesota (and U.S. in general), I’m so sorry for the loved ones that you’re losing. This isn’t just an injustice to the American society but to a family who has lost one of their members. Regardless of which side you stand on, that remains a fact. I feel bad for Charlie Kirk’s children as well because they’ve lost a father, I’m no hypocrite, but I know that some are incapable of being impartial on something as human and tragic as grief. The world will move on but these family members will carry this loss with them for the rest of their lives.

Yes, I’m a sensitive person, what gave me away?

SSRIs. I already knew this was likely going to be my conclusion, but I really wish I started the treatment sooner. So many years feeling incompetent and damaged! Months of school missed, almost getting expelled, turning down invites, awkward friendship moments, scared of my own shadow… Anxiety is mentally brutal. It’s not just being scared or exaggerating, it’s a very real struggle that can destroy your social life – which is needed to live a healthy and prosperous life. I spent so many days unable to get myself out of bed because anything outside of that area seemed like a threat.

I started SSRIs 8 months ago. I can’t say it’s been perfect, but that’s not what I’m aiming for. Some periods are tougher than others, but I’m so grateful I’m at a state where I actually feel like I’m living – not a shell of a person. I’m not self-sabotaging myself as much as I used to, and I’m gaining more and more independence and confidence in my daily life. I’m finally able to say that I’m happy and motivated.

I’m sure that therapy will help resolve some of my childhood trauma, so I’m looking forward to that, but I want to go into the sessions with a clear mind. Without the medication, I wouldn’t be able to process and live by my psychologist’s advice. I’m extremely grateful to have found a treatment that works!

Are we sure he’s not still injured from being dragged a while ago?

And women, Latinx, immigrants, welfare-dependent people, the chronically ill… the list goes on and on. I don’t know why these people like shooting themselves in the foot so much. Even if they had some vendetta against a group of people because they’ve been brainwashed to believe “XYZ is abusing our system,” if they themselves need such services and could die without them, why vote against their own needs like healthcare and protection? But then again, some people didn’t even know that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was going to significantly affect Medicaid and SNAP benefits, so the bar of intelligence really is in hell.

And this is why you can’t boot-lick people like Trump to be on their good side. Negotiations mean nothing to him; if somebody feeds him the idea that he needs to betray you, he will. You can’t make a deal with the devil, especially one that has dimentia.

Got a negative report because some students were being loud in the corridor before the teacher came in. I (and a few others) were doing my homework, but the entire class got punished 🙃 If I had more courage back then, I would have marched straight to the assistant head’s office and refused to get it signed by my mum. It was only 5 points, but I hate when quiet people minding their own business get unfairly blamed because they happened to be in the same group as those causing chaos.

Yoghurt (plain is ideal but I like a little bit of vanilla), nuts, rice cakes, homemade dried fruit oat bars, apples, and homemade protein bars.

I don’t think they’re open source, but I use DeepSeek (Chinese) and Le Chat (French). I’m also testing out Lumo by Proton.

Oh how I miss that 💔 Mine passed away two years ago, and I used to love it whenever we slept next to each other. Sometimes, mine even liked to rest on my pillow like a human. I keep having this recurrent dream about her mysteriously coming back to life (which is funny because her remains are ash) and it breaks my heart every time when I wake up. I know that you already do, but please cherish these moments with everything that you’ve got! Observe as many details as you can like the facial features, the size, the ears, the softness of the fur… One of my many fears is that I’ll forget what my dog looked like and felt like.

Sorry if this is melancholy, but I just had one of those dreams last night and your comment moved me.

I just woke up so I’ll talk about yesterday. I made a very solid self-development plan for 2026 and I feel proud of it. I have general anxiety so I tend to overthink and overcomplicate things, but I think I kept it as minimal and realistic as possible. I’m trying to focus on progress over perfection, so I feel relieved not to have the pressure to be “done” by the end of every month. I’m mainly doing this because it helps to know what comes next and that I’m waking up every day with a plan. Otherwise, I get overwhelmed with what to do and experience executive dysfunction. So I’m happy that I took some time for myself, reflected deeply, and invested in my future :)

I thought the kitten was a sticker

This cat seems young and playful so I might try playing with a toy. I love it whenever I catch the cat burying its poop 🤣 I also heard some feisty screams with my other neighbour’s cat so I know that there’s some drama going on haha

That’s true. I’ve been very tempted to feed it a few scraps of food (like breadcrumbs or leftover canned tuna), but I know some animals don’t respond well to some food and I’m not used to cats yet. I had a dog so I know not to feed dogs any chocolate, grapes, or nuts, but all I know is that [most] cats can eat tuna so I didn’t want to risk potentially making my neighbour’s cat sick, or worse.

I have been researching animal sanctuaries to start the process of getting a cat though, so eventually I’ll have some actual cat food. Maybe then I’ll try to feed this one a few bites, but I think I’ll ask the neighbour first because I don’t know if this cat is allergic to a specific ingredient or anything.

I did because I know that some cats prefer it if you wait until they get comfortable with you and that cats are really the ones who decide if you’re friends, not you. We’ve gotten as close as getting a few sniffs of my hand. Whenever I open the door, the cat happily comes inside. Lately, I’ve been leaving the door open and letting the cat roam about. It’s usually just a quick routine exploration from the kitchen to the bedroom and then the bathroom before it quickly leaves. It lasts maybe 5 minutes, but I’m just happy I get a visit. I noticed the cat is very interested in my bathroom window, which leads to the same yard it comes from but there’s a bush right underneath so it can’t jump. I once found muddy fingerprints on my bathroom sink and it felt so wholesome 🥹