u/Limp-Performer-752

I'm 24 years old, and I want to say from the start that I'm not "lazy" in any way. I've been working since I was 17, and I've worked hard the whole time. I paid for my car myself, put a decent amount into stocks/crypto, tried to make smart decisions, and all that. But of course, that's nowhere near enough for me to just stop working.

I don't understand how people are supposed to do this forever. I wake up early, sit in traffic, work all day, and then sit in traffic again on the way home. By then it's almost 6 p.m., and the day feels like it's over. Maybe I get 3 hours to myself if nothing else comes up. And that's before laundry, groceries, cleaning, cooking, appointments, and any random things that need to get done before bed. Then I go to sleep knowing I have to repeat the same thing again.

I'm stressed about work all the time. It follows me home. I hate that everything here is built around a 38+ hour workweek like that's normal and everyone is supposed to be fine with it. There's almost no time to live unless you're rich or somehow found the perfect setup.

I wait for the weekend, but as soon as Saturday night comes, I find myself thinking about Tuesday and getting stressed again. Every night I come home already dreading the next shift. This has happened to me at every job I've worked, not just because of a bad manager or a bad company. I'm always thinking about quitting, or working part-time, or looking on Indeed for remote jobs, or finding something simple where I can clock in without feeling like my life is being drained out of me.

Am I the only one who feels this way? I want to start my own business someday and be my own boss, but that feels so far away right now. Maybe remote work would help? I just want to work so I can live, not live so I can work. But in the States, it feels like if you don't want to be broke, you have to sacrifice 38 hours a week, and probably closer to 48 when you count commuting and everything else.