work gives life meaning.

When I initially graduated from high school, I resonated with r/antiwork. I got a full-time job, hated it, quit it, and went back to doing 8 hours of work per week and drawing an allowance off of my parents. For about a year, I was really a NEET working once a week for $200, spending it all on fast food, and just floating through life. Initially, it was great, but after six months, I felt like garbage. No growth, no improvement, nothing to look forward to. A year later, I finally acquired a full-time position, and now I enjoy waking up in the morning feeling like I'm actually getting ahead. My money is mine, and I'm using it to speed up my education and invest in my future all out of my own pocket. The feeling of getting ahead is ELITE. Life truly is a video game: \- How well you financially fare. \- Where your career path can lead (fun, lucrative jobs). \- Can you marry a gorgeous, loving woman and give her and children a good life? Its all a game But the labor isn't the drudgery it's what it results in... Imagine a cozy house somewhere rural on some acres well away from the city, where 20–30 relatives drop by the campfire at night, laughing, telling stories, feeling like they belong somewhere. Some are sleeping inside the house, others in tented caravans on the land all here because we created a life worth sharing. And at 2 a.m., when the party's over and we all go to bed, I go upstairs with my wife. We're not alone, we're surrounded by love, family, and support and yet in that moment, we're just us. Time stops completely. A lot of NEETs say they are virgins, and after a handful of encounters with women, while these topics are discouraged on the sub, I typically found QUALITY encounters matter over QUANTITY. And that's not in the act itself, it's moreso do you feel alone during or after, or do you feel like you have true company. So many times you can have access to a girl privately, but you never talk after, you dont know each other, you dont even socially get along. Those are bad, and no one is to blame, its just not ideal. Just imagine after a night where you feel the furthest from lonely, morning comes, and downstairs in the sunny dining room, breakfast is ready. Some bacon, eggs, pancakes, everything fresh. Outside, our kids and the kids of our extended family are running around, playing football, racing go-karts, actually living, free from the dopamine addiction of screens. This is why being a NEET sucks, you don't get to host these events that bring you out of your loneliness. The NEET life is hella lonely, and idc whether you say you're an introvert (I definitely have been both extravert or introvert depending on situation), loneliness is actually WAY MORE CONCERNING for the human condition than actually a lot of other mental illnesses, and you MUST PULL YOURSELF OUT. No excuses please, and to start, you can always dm me, but please do better for yourself IRL. I'm not perfect and I experienced the NEET life. this is me speaking to all the high school graduates that feel useless: Work isn't evil. Work is what enables you to make this. A real future, real relationships, real meaning. It's about doing something better than yourself, a life you'd actually wish you lived, not one where you're trying to flee responsibility, praying to get in on the good times forever. Others think the purpose is to be out of work, but work is freedom. You don't win this life lying around waiting for someone to bestow it on you. You earn it. And when you do, you'll never look back.