always waiting for something to happen.

it depresses me that this makes it special

anyway thats not the point really

Anyway, reading that book and waiting for something to happen seem to go hand in hand.

as for cockfarmers who spout empty crap like 'you can't wait for something to happen, you have to MAKE it happen': i'd like to make you unhappen.

While I think this sentence is a classic, and at the risk of unhappening, I'm afraid I have to say it's the truth. You do have to be an active participant in your life. If you're unhappy, you have to change something. The problem there, always, is how, and what. I quit the job and went to school again, then found an entirely different job. But that didn't work either, so I quit and went to school yet again. This is fun, but there are negative consequences like having no money, wondering if you ever will, etc. It can be smaller efforts too, though. You can say, I'm going over there to talk to that girl/boy who attracts me, shy or not. There's a shotgun effect problem though. You will get shot down sometimes, so you have to make the effort even when there's no immediate payoff.

Or is this thread actually about the Dave Eggers book, and I didn't notice?

bah

what if you are very much in control of yr life and very proactive about things etc but just wish there was something MORE, some bombshell around the corner or some conversation or some INCIDENT or just something?

i don't exclusively limit this to a person or a job or a lottery win (although i guess any of those could work too)

hell it could be a hit pedestrian

just SOMETHING

I do enjoy a challenge. But that is very much within the spectrum of how I grew up.

It is funny because I was talking to her about this last night - either she can make things happen with her life or complain about her life. I would rather she do something rather than complain. Now is that wrong? I certainly do not think so!

i am neither your girlfriend nor jaded nor depressed nor hip so hands off okay?

consider the possibility that in trying to make me happen you've completely misunderstood the premise

this is NOT about being stuck

what i am saying is that i feel like there are times where life wants me to talk and when life wants me to listen

i think i mostly talk at the right times and in the right places

but whenever i feel like i should be listening i never quite know what to be listening FOR

there's also a 'something about to happen' mood on a global scale which bothers me and actually has me thinking 'look if the US/UK are going to go to war regardless of what i think will they just get it over with ASAP so we can start dealing with the consequences' - sometimes the waiting is too much to bear and you just want things to be over no matter how awry the situation could turn.

am thinking about what my life and the world will be like in 5 and 10 years time...probably much the same, but then go back 5 years and think about 2003 and if you could see it you'd probably say the same despite everything that has happened.

Neither am I. Do you actually buy lottery tickets? Remember, you can't win Lotto if you don't play! But it sounds like you want to. Statistically, of course, no one wins the lottery.

If you hop a plane for Baghdad tonight or become a stringer for Time or BBC World in Afghanistan or work with AIDS victims in South Africa, you'll have a life experience that registers on your meter. A lot of being "proactive" in running your life and indeed bing civilized means avoiding the kinds of experiences you seem to be looking for. Society is set up to mitigate uncertainty, good and bad.

I was trying to resond thoughtfully to your post, but I guess it didn't read that way. The initial statement is set up rather as a dead end. I want this and this and this and not that and if you say this, then you're wrong and why am I not having fun yet? Kind of answers itself.

It seems that sometimes, people with this attitude ("MAKE things happen") deny the existance of occurances/circumstances beyond their control. My mother's favorite catch phrase is "you create your own reality".

This makes me want to take up kickboxing when I'm healthy enough to do so.

I want a snack. I think I'll go and make that happen.

My one university professor said, 'You will seem much smarter if you actually started to type out your thoughts rather than write' but am painfully bad at typing. I am trying to make that happen. Bear with me! : - D

My way to deal with this impulse is to recognize it and realize that it is self-defeating. No matter how much something does happen, you'll soon tire of these things and will be back to where you started--wanting something to happen. You can see this in the most successful of people--never satisfied. So, I guess I'm advocating a Buddhist outlook--be satisfied w/the basics of life, be happy doing 'nothing' (realize that it is something, in fact) and limit your desires. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to groom my high horse.

the only times that I wait for something to happen is when I'm bored out of my mind otherwise it never comes into it.

samuel beckett to thread!