Surely you exaggerate....

A friend recently suggested that I was unfair to myself:  Think of what you have achieved. -- An interesting thought, but I would prefer to ask what might I have achieved in better circumstances, and how might I have been (and be) less distraught, less anxious and fearful, less worried about the future. So, to be concrete, how much time have I spent since 1988 looking for jobs, writing job letters, worrying about what to say and how to say it, arranging and going to a job interview? Because every year since 1988 I have had to look for a job and/ or think about/ worry about renewal. I have never had a contract for longer than a year.  That's twenty four years during which I have wasted time I could have spent more profitably-- "achieving" something, rather than merely worrying about survival. Yet how many million people in the USA and around the world have worse insecurity, working without a contract and able to be fired at a moment's notice? ...And there are evil or misguided people who dare to call that "flexibility".... No, I do not exaggerate, and I really am not happy to be alive....