I was once jobless for about 4 months.

I was surprised reading some of the recent posts. Unlike some others, I absolutely hated the state of being jobless.

It was not about the money. I come from a middle-class background and had enough savings to last me more than a decade. It was not about the loss-of-status/face. My family was very supportive and never hurried me to find a new job.

My main gripe was waking up with nothing to look forward to for the rest of the day.

The first month was super fun. Freedom to wake up at any time you want. Play computer games that you missed out on. Go to fancy cafes. Take short-term classes like cooking or language. Go on holidays.

But that utopia quickly changes into a bad dream.

Your friends are all working and cannot hang out with you. You get bored of solo travelling from place-to-place. Your initial enthusiasm for cooking/language classes wears off. You finish most of your computer games and have nothing left to play. When you open your eyes, the first thing you do is to scroll through the job portal and apply for jobs. Once that is done, to pass time, you turn on Netflix and watch whatever is available until its time for lunch and dinner.

I know several friends who have lived like this for a year or more and they are totally fine with it. But for me, this lifestyle was an absolute nightmare.

The way I view it, it was like an RPG game where your main questline suddenly comes to a halt (i.e. losing your job) and you suddenly have free time on your hands. Ok not too bad at first; you use the time to complete all the sidequests that you missed out earlier. But once even those sidequests are completed, you are just walking around aimlessly in the game with nothing to do.

Some people have told me to get a hobby. I do have a few hobbies. But the issue is how can such hobbies be done on a full-time basis with no end in sight? Let's say I like rock-climbing; how can anyone rock-climb day-after-day for weeks on end? Or if I like to do gardening, how can I just be tending to my plants non-stop forever?

I was fortunate to have found a suitable job within months. But if I failed to do so, at that point, I would have just taken any job available (even with steep paycuts in a totally unrelated field) just so that I can not be jobless. I don't know if its a product of the Singapore system where one must always be "doing something", but I really did feel very desperate during those times, and not for financial reasons at all.

Anyway, we all eventually find our paths in life. All the best to those still finding jobs!