Where do you see yourself...

[Devil's Advocate]

Ten years from now?

[Kana]

I'll probably be in graphic design unless my strong fascination with music and playing it takes over. Depending on how much issues I've been having, most likely in a big city. I'll probably be trying to get higher in my career path.

[Swolfy]

I'll probably be going through grad school, or getting my internship or something. Vets have to go to school for a looooong time! XD

Or maybe in jail. Because I got enough money to visit Vatican City, and was arrested for tackleglomping the pope. ^^;

[Amanda]

I have a number of paths that I'd like to take, so I'm not entirely sure which one I'll end up taking. I've had high aspirations for myself since... toddler age, so that'd be quite amazing if I pursued my love of acting and sing in some place like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, perhaps even San Francisco (since it's right next door? xD). But if I decide that's a bit too much of a farfetched ambition I'll either get a history major and teach history as a professor or I shall be doing something that is involved with the legal system. d:

[Swolfy]

Haha, Amanda, I can imagine myself as a teacher. In my almost prophetic vision, the classrom is on fire. ;; Not a career choice for me. XD

[Dog Moved On]

If I survive the judicial reporting program, I see myself working as an official reporter in a courtroom . . . Somewhere. Hopefully Wisconsin, but I don't know if I can drag Dio up here, it's very cold and he's a baby delicate southern flower. (I love you honey.) We might be Iowa if he goes to graduate school. I'd like to have a small property with a few Icelandic/babydoll sheep, maybe a pair of miniature goats, and various poultry. I hope I am capable of walking and working, but my joint degeneration seems to be speeding up. We shall see.

[dio]

With Sad Dog. That's all I can think of, honestly, that I want more than anything. I also want to see the world. That's the only other thing I want out of life, to travel. But not touristy travel, although if I get anything at all, I bet that's what I'll get. I want to be connected, in some way other than my white affluence, the things that I see. I want to be in the navy, or I want to be a war photographer, or something. I hate academics. I'm tired of them, and the idea of sitting in one place and doing more school (worst of all, useless school) - of teachers asking me how I feel about a certain painting, and not teaching me anything about it - when there's a world of action, a world of doing and not just talking about doing, out there, makes me feel miserable. I don't know. Maybe I'm just have a testosterone moment, but that's what I want. I've been sitting at a desk all my life, I'm sick of it, I want to go.

[KatInTheHat]

In hospital near death?

...these questions always depress me. Most people have futures. Plenty wont live to have them though.

[Dog Moved On]

I am not in a strong habit of scratching at other people's scabs. If I am overstepping my boundaries, please inform me, and I will step away from the issue with neither resentment nor judgment.

What is the disease you suffer from, Kat?

[piffles211]

Well, I don't know what the future holds. I could be buried underground in a casket, I could be trapped in a deep ditch starving, I could be in prison, I could be married and living a happy life, I could be single but have a good job and my dream pets, I could be alone and lonely, I could have 40 cats, I could be extremely sick..I 'unno.

[magic dance]

Ideally?
In Vegas, trying to make a name for myself doing what I actually love to do.
Realistically?
Right where I am, desperately trying to find a steady job.

[KatInTheHat]

...JHD :c But I hate talking about it.

[Dog Moved On]

I see. I am very sorry to hear that, Kat. I hope that you find peace in your life. I am sorry for pressing at it.

[Devil's Advocate]

Sorry for asking a question that's a sore spot, Kat...

But look at it this way: you still do have a future, even if it's shorter than some? One thing about life, none of us are getting out alive. I think that no matter how much time any of us have, we should all make the best of it and try to do something with it.

Realistically, we're all talking about wanting to be this, do that, go there... but we could ALL be dead in ten years. Who knows?

[Dog Moved On]

Mm. Again, it is not particularly my place to comment. But, I have perhaps a related experience. My disease will not likely kill me prematurely, but it will give me terrible pain for most of my life - through certain lifestyle choices I might be able to stave that pain off for a while, or reduce it somewhat, but there is nothing I can do to prevent it completely. It is a fate I have accepted, and one which I mourn.

There are worse fates. There are other types of EDS which are more severe, types of diseases in general which are more horrific; there are accidents which might give a person worse suffering. There are untold unforeseeable, terrible things that might happen to every member of this board. Terrible things are happening to people all around the world as I type. But that does not make my own foreseen and unavoidable fate less personally painful to me. If a woman is raped once, while another is forced into prostitution and raped repeatedly for years; is the first unentitled to mourning her own pain? "It could be worse" is a hollow consolation in the face of suffering, much of the time.

That said, I do agree, there is a significant difference between mourning our pain, and being ruled by it. If I were to become cynical and bitter, or overwhelmed by the knowledge of my fate, I would be squandering the short window of time I have on this earth to be relatively healthy, to be happy and mostly unencumbered by pain. So I cry for it sometimes, and kick and spew curses and snap at the people I love; but then find something to laugh about, and build and sing and make amends with those I've hurt. And there, I find ways to take advantage of the time I have. It is good. But it does not make the pain go away, and it does not exclude the act of mourning on those long nights and bad days, it does not make it wrong.


EDIT: Links = still invisible. Mrr.