I work retail, and a question I’ve been asked more than once that I’m getting tired of being asked is “what comes after this?” Nothing. Nothing comes after this. As if working retail isn’t good enough and I should be doing more with my life when it comes to what I do for work. It’s really kind of insulting. There’s nothing I feel passionate enough about to get a college/university education in and go into tens of thousands of dollars of debt over. I already went to school for graphic design and already my profession is becoming more and more obsolete with the advancements of AI. But furthermore, my dream is not to climb the corporate ladder. Fuck pushing women to work and climb the corporate ladder and become hyper independent. What about all the women who don’t want that? What about all the women who want to be housewives and stay-at-home moms? It’s great that women have the option to work and be self sufficient and totally independent – I’m not bashing that at all and I think that’s an absolutely positive thing. But as it stands, there has been so much focus on women to become hyper independent that it’s completely out of balance, and now it’s hard for women to even have the option to have a more traditional role if they want it, and society judges them for it. I absolutely hate that it has become the expectation of every woman to be part of the work force, and that we are now living in a society where it is so hard to survive and support a family on one income, so women like me who would prefer a more traditional role can’t have it so easily anymore. It is the expectation of women to work and climb the corporate ladder because life’s become so unaffordable not to. This is so sad to me. 🙁