So now what?

[Teddy Bear]

I got a doozy for you guys. A few years ago, having been a few years out of high school and done pretty much nothing, I took a big chance and joined up with Disney cruise line as a character actor and set technician. After a few years as an actor, a few months ago I started having pretty heavy nightmares accompanied by sleep walking brought on by stress. Even though I enjoyed my job, 10 to 14 hour days, 7 days a week had caught up with me. I miss my job, I loved every second of it, even if it meant sweating to death in heavy costumes as a bottom of the barrel character performer, it was worth it. It gave me something I needed. The unfortunate truth of it is that you can’t do that kind of work forever. It wears down your body and eventually they push you into management which would be torture for me. So I’ve returned home and everybody around me said I should be here but I feel useless. I don’t even know how to function. I feel like an inmate that’s been let out of prison after 40 years and wants go back just because it’s something familiar. I’m 27, and my life is nowhere near the point that I can’t start again, but everything I try seems kind of hollow. I might try art school, maybe animation, but in the mean time I don’t feel right. Every day on the ships they feed you, they give you a place to sleep and a little space of your own, you never worry about anything but a basic cell phone and credit card bill. All I did all day was my job. I’m trying to land a job here, even got my resume in at ebay through a friend, but the thought of sitting at a desk all day hurts, but it’s the only job that pays enough that I can afford to stay in the city. I was a nonunion set tech and actor so I can’t do any of that here. I feel affection starved and unstable, my old work filled that void.

Any advice?

[chickidee23]

My advice to you would be to take a job as a temporary thing so you at least have some money coming in to you but continue to look for something that would make you happy. I am not particularly fond of my job but it pays the bills for now and it's giving me time to think about what I really want to do. 27 is still young and you still have plenty of time a head of you to figure out what job would make you happy. It can be so overwhelming to find yourself in a position that is leading you no where but I think that happens to a lot of us in life and it's just one of those obstacles we have to over come. If you begin to feel overwhelmed, try looking at things in smaller portions- like what you can do at the end of the day to make yourself happy.

 

And I am sorry that you are no longer able to do the job you adore but if you don't give up, you'll find a job like that again!

 

Good luck with everything!!!

[Beec]

Welcome to enotalone.

 

I never did the character acting bit, but I spent a bunch of time at sea and on ships, not passenger ships, but commercial ones. I knew some guys who were in a similar position, who hardly ever got off. And while it kills me a bit, I switched to the desk.

 

I think the things is to keep trying somethings until you find one that works for you. Temporary jobs might be the exposure you need to something.

 

And if you really want to do animation, watch plenty of Tex Avery cartoons.