#did part time at my grandma's local store to earn money while on vacation

[szk-ruma]

More than half of my earnings this week went straight to art supplies🥹👊

[trollprincess]

About a week or so ago, I was at the local grocery store and got to talking with the elderly clerk. She was talking with me and someone else about how she's retired twice but got bored and went back to work. Which is fine! If you're retired and you find you want to go back to work, you should be able to.

But part of her conversation was complaining about how people can stay home and get paid to do nothing, and someone else backed her up, and I had to resist the urge to scream.

I am not going to be able to retire. I know that. Unless by some sort of miracle I win the lottery or manage to help catch a wanted criminal and get a huge reward, there's no way in hell I'll be able to retire. I work two jobs and have a podcast and I still constantly struggle to get anywhere financially. I've got $58,000 in student loan debt that's not budging. And for added fun, I've got a family history of cardiovascular disease where my grandpa dropped dead on the golf course at 52 or so and my grandma died of a stroke at sixty and my mom could die of the same damn thing at any moment. If I don't work myself to death, I'll die before I can stop working.

I wish I could just believe that woman was only talking about people who supposedly scam welfare or disability to stay home even though that's patently bullshit. I did play it off like that, though, and said, "Honey, I've worked with lazy people before I'm much rather pay to stay home than have to deal with in the workplace. You're going to tell me you haven't?" That shut her up.

That said, I don't think that's all that she meant. I genuinely think she meant it about retirees, too. And she's lucky I didn't say exactly what I've been thinking since, which is this:

Bitch, you're lucky you get to HAVE a retirement if you want.

I don't. I know a lot of people who don't. And a lot of the reason we don't is because of people YOU voted into office. Assholes who will definitely get to retire, or won't because sitting in a congressional seat until their skeleton has to be carted out earns them massive amounts of money from lobbyists paying them to do jack shit.

"I was too bored when I was retired."

You're lucky you GET to be bored! I don't get to be bored. I get to work and sleep. I get to research my podcast while at my weekend job while occasionally checking the social media accounts I work on at my part-time job. And then I come home and sleep. I don't have the goddamn energy to do *anything*. I keep trying to squeeze in crafts like making little mini-dollhouses or paint-by-numbers kits as stress relief and all it does is make me feel guilty I'm not working on something else.

You're SUPPOSED to be able to relax! You're supposed to be able to spend an entire fucking day eating Cheetos and watching old episodes of MST3K and only getting out of bed to use the bathroom and retrieve your DoorDash order. You're not supposed to work and work and work until you fall to pieces. I've been making myself go on small vacations since the pandemic because it hit me just how little I've traveled and I refuse to die not having gone anywhere but work, college, and home.

But for Christ's sake, if you have the option of retiring, DO IT. If not for yourself, for the rest of us. Let us live vicariously through you. Go on cruises, or learn how to dance, or just stay home on the couch hanging out with your dog and watching soap operas. Do you have any clue how many people my age and younger envy your opportunity to just do nothing? Absolutely fucking nothing? Because thanks to YOU, more than likely, we won't get that option.