 Originally Posted by melanieb
I read it too, Link.
If I had been on this site when I was 18 I probably would have sounded a lot like you at times.
But only at first.
As each year passed I spent more time with friends, and that really allowed me to become more comfortable with the world and my place in it.
Having children does help. I have a reason to live under any circumstance.
I'm not dependent on my children for happiness, or self-worth...but they do remind me of all the things I wondered about and valued when I was a kid. They help me find the magic in the world, the possibilities that both the waking world and the dream world offer.
I think that if I didn't connect to that magic, that "what-if" feeling I would be disappointed in so many things.
Instead I find faeries in every tree nook, a portal in every dark space, and I "see" the motion in the air around me as a butterfly passes by.
You know, reading what I just wrote, I want some of whatever it is I'm smoking. 
Well, you're just compatible with many people I'm presuming. It's not as if I don't want to meet people, it's just that this isn't the time for me to be concerned with too many people.
Everyone is going to go their separate ways in college, and even though there can be bonds created through universities/college, the same mentality is considered to be the same in High School, but it's not.
And for college, I don't see any kind of lasting bonds after I'm done with it, especially the path where I'm going. Everyone is going for generic majors, I'm just going for one that most people don't really want to go into.
Sure there's going to be partners that I'll meet, but we'll only meet them because we need each other to further our own goals.
As much as the fairytale you were giving just now can make a person feel warm and fuzzy, I'll tell you the truth now, I've become so isolated from that friendship thing because I simply love avoiding it.
Friends can help sustain some reasons to still be breathing, yes, but I want to be able to create those same reactions for myself. I don't want to rely on others too much.
I don't mean to be insulting or anything, but what if something were to happen to a companion/friend/associate of yours, what if they're not there to be there for you anymore?
I don't mean the type of need where they have to be on you 24/7, just the times where they can do their best to show up and offer whatever competence they have to the given situation.
 Originally Posted by Pensive Patrick
I totally agree with melanie link. Although obviously I'm not exactly a wise old man, nevertheless. When I was 16 I had enormous mood swings and depressions and crazy thoughts and I felt like I was a mess.
You don't have to be a wise old man to give advice, Patrick. I'm glad that you're giving insight on what you think, it's helping me sharpen my views, and I earnestly respect that.
 Originally Posted by Pensive Patrick
But in the few short years I've been at university, whether young me likes it or not, I am a completely different person. I'm calmer and happier, and the contrast between my mindset now and the chaotic depression I had when I was at school is amazing. I do not hesitate to say I am an entirely different person, despite the enormous cliche!
So yeah sorry if I sound patronising, but you'll get through any tough mental times you're having, and find your place... Just like melanie says.
Thanks, I'm sure I will in time.
 Originally Posted by Singularity125
God, see, my entire Ev. Psych book was built on that theory. I hate it so much! It comes down to psychologists thinking we're all selfish monsters on the inside. I prefer to think differently, for my own sanity if nothing else. 
Of course, we shouldn't be confined to 'selfish monsters,' we're more complex than that, but it's just sometimes I shift back to the rudiments that would make others think I only focus on that aspect.
I don't think life is "just" about anything. Hence why I said "for me". Everyone needs their own meaning in life, and since I don't care about money, mine differs from most of capitalist America.  I care very much about my friends, and about learning new things, so that is what I choose to focus on.
Well, having a father that wants me to get a good job, my views are a little different, so money is an important factor for me, not to satisfy him, because I'm far from doing that again, but for my own sake.
I'm not declaring that my father isn't important to me anymore, I admit, without him, I wouldn't have been here right now.
So in my own contradicting views on him, even though I'm trying my best to understand his own position, it's going to take a while for me to be more positive towards myself.
I've hated him so much for the wrong reasons, and now I'm just trying to go back to being neutral instead of being furious with him.
Pardon me if this comes across as rude, but it always seems like you're trying to run before you know how to walk when it comes to these things.
I don't think it's rude, but I will tell you this. I do plan these things out before I actually do them, it may not seem like it, but I don't really talk too much on all the things I'm going to do before I try something out.
You're setting very tough dream goals which are admirable, but then you get annoyed when they don't happen right away. I used to be the exact same way, but I'm beginning to learn that I need to cultivate patience if I don't want to go crazy. So... just try not to stress over things so much. You'll get what you're hoping for eventually, I'm sure.
Yes, I do get annoyed not getting done, and sometimes I just take a break from it, but it doesn't mean I want to give up on it completely, especially after all the effort I'm still trying to give.
There's a reason why I'm hard on myself with dream goals, because I know that in almost every dream of mind, I've had a collection of many many many many potential dream guides. I want the luxury of having just one, once I can do that, then I'll start accepting the possibilities of them appearing in many forms.
If I just take a break and try to dream naturally, I usually get dreams that I don't really need to know, so I have to convince myself to try harder, otherwise, my mind is going to give me crap, and I've noticed that in most of my dream journal entries.
Whether or not my subconscious is trolling on me, I'm not going to let it keep tricking me.
I have a somewhat decent knowledge on the basics of lucid dreaming, the only problem I'm having is consistency, feeling the experience of going into the dream state. I know that with practice, I'll get it eventually, but I don't want to keep delaying, I just don't like that.
All of my life, I've had to learn things quickly, whether or not if it will give me huge amounts of stress.
Like drawing for instance, I didn't know crap about it when I was younger. I took an art class, the teacher was difficult as hell, so I had to bust my ass off if I wanted an A in that class.
What I didn't realize is that through all hard work, it's much easier to draw now.
It's just that I've been in constant moments where it's either you go through a lot of pain and struggle to quickly learn things, or just save it later on when you learn how to deal with the more tedious tasks first.
If I learn things passively, and slowly, I wouldn't have gotten anywhere. It's the thought of being skilled in as many things as possible is what I'm striving for, and by many, I mean the essentials that would be everything for a person.
Yes, I do complain, I do whine, but it's what I've always been doing for most of my life, but I always end up learning things quickly because of it.
The fear of incompetence is part of the reason why I am able to learn things quickly.
I don't like doing things long-term that can obviously be done short-term with enough devotion and practice.
Especially with dream recall, because I had a passion for dreaming when my friend introduced me to this site, I went all out in being able to remember my first dream.
That same night where I convinced myself I would remember my dreams, I did, and for my first time, it was pretty long for a beginner. Since then, I've been practicing my dream recall as much as I can, and now, it's easy to remember my dreams, as long as I get enough sleep.
It's through pushing myself to learn things quickly, that they become engrained into my mind just like that.
To me, when I go through ambitious and almost impossible goals, I learn so much more than taking things periodically.
I rather have as much in my collection than to take too long on one aspect.
Yes, sometimes taking your time to learn the fundamentals might take a while, and can't be rushed, but there's a point where you have to start getting serious.
Sometimes doing something difficult helps click in the fundamentals, if I stay within those basics for too long, I'm going to get irritated either way, so it doesn't matter what I do, which is why I pick the difficult path.
It's not the goals that are hard exactly, it's just getting lucid that's hard. Once I become lucid, I pretty much remember those the most, and can extend so much from them because I've learned to gather snippets of my experiences, the feelings, etc., that I can go on and on, while still staying in range of the length of the dream of course.
Everyone is different, some can lucid dream naturally, some can't without years of practice...I just want to learn it quickly, I don't want to spend too long practicing it.
I forget the idea that lucid dreaming takes time, that's just nonsense to me, because if we can easily do it, what's the excuse in using other people's stories to try and validate that I can't get it done in a shorter period of time?
I just don't see other people's experience as the only merit to define how I should take things with dream goals.
 Originally Posted by Pensive Patrick
Totally agree, I've been lucid dreaming for seven or eight years now and I still can't make them last for more than a few minutes. If I had set tough goals at any point I would have just made myself very frustrated.
Having said that, it's not like I've been trying as hard as I could 
Like I've said, I set these ambitions on purpose because they click in much quickly than taking things passively and calmly.
And the reason why I'm a sporadic person to some of you, is because I've noticed I'm a different person when I'm lucid in my dreams. All I'm doing is confirming those feelings between waking life and dreaming life to see if I'm dreaming or not.
It's because I'm not as lucid, you can't really see the other side of me as much, so everyone is left to assume that I'm stressed out for no reason, when it fact it's the same stress that gives me more skill to add to my collection much quicker.
I'm all for learning as many things as possible, which is why some people don't really like my that much. They'll start to see that I'm ambitious, which makes them think they aren't needed anymore, and it's apparent that people get pissed at what I want to do, so if they want to regress my ambition, I simply ignore them.
I can't just let people bring me down like that, and I'm not talking about you guys, I'm talking about people who start getting insecure towards me in waking life, and just because I know one thing, they love jumping to the conclusion that I simply know everything , when I obviously do not.
I know I have my strengths and flaws, but it's superiority and inferiority complexes that makes you see only patches of who I really am.
That's why I'm sure most of you are confused on who I am, because I'm a different person in different situations.
And because I tell so much about myself, it can irritate a few people, because they believe that no person should be doing that, but I really don't care what I say about myself. I know what to keep a secret, and what to give to others.
If people are bothered by this, then they need to understand themselves more than jumping to conclusions about me.
I don't think a lot of people strive to understand themselves more through their own capabilities.
Friends can help find reflections of yourself, and I admit I'm already looking for these reflections, but even when I do, I don't want to rely on them too long.
I just like being in solitude in certain things, and if people don't think that's a healthy and sane practice, then I guess they have their own opinions.
People think I show all that I am, but this is just a piece of myself.
I'm grateful for all your responses, but it's just that I already know what I have to do, but I'm not saying that I know everything. I know I have huge huge hugeee gaps in my knowledge, but it's more fun solving them on my own. That's how I was brought up, to be introverted. It just feels comfortable knowing who I am before I deal with a large group of people.
@ Singularity, It may seem that I'm doing things without planning at first, but I do plan these things out, you're just seeing my complaints, not the progress that I've kept aware of since I joined this forum.
I keep that progress hidden.
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