There are probably more than a few things in the world that people think is easy (waiting tables and writing books both come to mind) that are significantly harder when you decide to attempt them for yourself,.
Thankfully, the 15 people below have attempted and confirmed…. so we don’t have to.
15. Much harder.
Dropping everything in your life to go back to college at the age of 29.
School isn’t what’s difficult, it’s the fact that I’m broke again that makes it much harder.
Hooray for student debt!
14. Horses.
Horseback riding.
Because “it’s literally just sitting on a horse, and the horse is doing all the work”.
Turns out it’s pretty difficult and physically demanding to get the horse to do what you want it to do.
13. Off-key and out of tune.
Singing.
Not professional or even in front of people but just singing along to a song. I was just cleaning the house on day and had YouTube playing music vids. “Sweet Child o’ Mine” came up with lyrics. I’ve “sung” this song hundreds of times but I stopped and was reading the lyrics as I sang and, Holy Hell, I freaking suck!
I know the words but I was LISTENING to myself sing them.
Off key, out of tune, bad phrasing, you name it, I did it BAD.
Took me 53 years to realize this.
12. Not happening.
Quitting sugar.
11. Years and years of practice.
Skateboarding.
I thought jumping on a skateboard “Ollie” will literally take a couple of hours to learn, yet it took many days to do it while moving and it still looked f**king awful.
Flipping a skate in the air while it does 360 took me 2 years to learn.
Then there’s a stance called Switch, which is basically doing the same trick but in uncomfortable stance for you, different leg front.
Learning to Switch 360 Flip and grind/slide on rails in that stance will take years and years of practice.
10. Forget it.
Surfing.
Really thought my 20 years of skate and snowboarding would help me out. Nope.
I got exhausted just putting on the wetsuit. Then trying to paddle and pop up? Forget it.
9. There’s a difference.
Playing drums.
Or I should say playing drums well.
8. Not all it’s cracked up to be.
Taking care of my aging parents.
They say that there is a time when you need to “parent your parents,” but I don’t think that’s a good analogy. I thought I would visit them more, make some doctors appointment, hire house cleaners and aides when necessary or maybe find a nice assisted living facility for them. No way, they didn’t want any of that at all. It wasn’t like parenting a child at all, more like needing to beg, plead, demand, or yell for them to allow me to do even minimal things that will keep their lives from totally falling apart and taking mine with it. (And that still didn’t work, writing you here from the broken life I saw coming a mile away.)
Not everyone’s elderly parents are like this, and mine were the most relaxed, empathic, organized people I ever knew growing up. Old age made them difficult and irrational, and they just weren’t able to see things logically or from my perspective anymore, so deep were they in the anxiety, fear, and stress of just dealing with their life.
7. Pistol squats.
Squatting with one leg in the air and then getting back up.
6. When you’re a natural night owl.
Waking up early.
Like just an hour earlier than my usual time and I’m a f**king zombie.
5. Harder than it looks.
Not giving a s**t.
I kept sort of giving a s**t.
4. The dream.
Finding a better job once I had a few years experience in the field.
3. Worth it, though.
Learning a different language.
2. Over estimate.
Drywall and general home repairs. I am riding a single room.
Remodeling from plaster and lathe. My advice; always buy at least one extra of anything you need from the hardware store, and estimate an extra 2-3hours of labor.
Truth is, if you’ve never done a project before you need time to screw it up once then go back and fix it.
1. A sloppy mess.
Painting.
Professionals make it look incredibly easy but it just becomes a sloppy mess when I try.
Consider yourself warned, fam!
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Thanks!
