CathInfo.com

So, I've spoken a fair bit with men who have had manual labor jobs for most of their lives, and they tell me that in their early 50s they've gotten to a point that their bodies are starting to give out ... and these are men who are in very good shape.  I thought that, well, perhaps since I hadn't "worn" myself out physically with all those years of work ... but I think that would be a miscalculation.  I think the issues they report aren't caused or exacerbated by the work, but are largely functions of age-related deterioration, inflammation, etc.  If anything, their having remained active has staved off and slowed down the decline.  On the rare occasion that I've had to exert myself a long time on serious physical labor for some hours, I feel like I'm worn down for some days afterwards.

I've been looking at things that are growing fields, like radiology or MRI technician ... but some of those programs are very competitive, aka hard to get into ... and once they realize that I'm close to 60, I think they're going to laugh me out the door.

BTW, Matthew, the "architect" jobs aren't there either.  Yes, the wage decline has been less precipitious, only about 20% lower than they used to pay not a yuear ago, but I've applied for about 20 of them or so, and got only one interview, but even though I did well there, I suspect that my age factored in and so I was never contacted after that.  Of the others about 10 of them I heard nothing back from at all (possibly phantom jobs or they just don't care), and I got about 9 ding notifications.

I think we're weeks, and possibly even just days, away from a total collapse of our country, and our economy, anyway ... so I feel this might be moot.

We can see a powder keg being put into place ... with the escalating violence between ICE and the Left, and now with the rising fury regarding the Epstein files, where we're litterally a match away from the fuse being lit to blow the entire powder keg, where we'd devolve into chaos, cινιℓ ωαr, and revolution.

I expect a fαℓѕє fℓαg very soon.

But my story is very different.  I do have to say that for a couple years when I was younger I wanted to be a doctor, to help people, but then after that all I ever wanted to do was to become a priest.

But OUTSIDE of thinking about the priesthood ... or religious life or similar, I did really enjoy programming from about the age of 10.  Unlike yourself, I was about 10 when my dad mysteriously came home with an Atari 800 computer, with a BASIC cartridge and book, and then I subscribed to a programming magazine ... and I spent entire Summers writing programs (for lack of much else to do besides playing out in the yard, or sports with the neighborhood kids).

I did spend a couple years teaching High School, but then after that got in as a computer technician, building them for a while, then doing field service (repair) ... until I was able to get an entry-level job programming, and then it's all I've done ever since.