The past few years after COVID-19 have been the absolute worst; everything keeps rising—petrol, daily groceries, electricity, housing—to the point where you're barely making ends meet. Just to imagine, I've been looking for an apartment for over 6 months and haven't found anything yet. Not only is there a very limited supply, but those available are either too expensive, poor, too small, or everything combined. Thus, this is creating a huge feeling of uncertainty, as time is running out and I need to get settled down. Renting outside of town in the nearby villages isn't ideal either, because petrol is way too expensive.

I'm not sure if anyone else feels the same, but this uncertainty with the increasing living costs and the ongoing rat race is causing me excessive stress. On top of that, moving out of the country doesn't seem ideal either, because most European cities are also suffering similar conditions, along with an extensive immigrant crisis (see France, Italy, Germany, and the UK). I'd be interested in remote working, but the economics field I've studied at university isn't in high demand for remote working, which often recruits IT workers and generally fields that require hands-on experience. As soon as I'm settled down, I'm considering taking up a data analysis course and finishing my master's degree in order to look for more opportunities abroad.

I don't know, but each year seems progressively worse. It wasn't that bad before COVID-19; now it's the ultimate worst I've seen, and it's about to deteriorate even further. Thankfully, this forum has been a blessing and probably the only thing giving me hope, as it has resulted in me making a decent sum of money in the process. I'm yet to start looking for a job, but salaries are relatively low, despite the increased cost of living. To make matters worse, excessive weather conditions due to climate change are happening way more often now, causing floods and wildfires and destroying everything in their path. See Libya, Greece, Italy, Spain, and many more examples.

Maybe I'm stressing out too much because I'm yet to find proper housing to establish myself again after being away for over a year in the military. I'm generally an anxious person myself, but does anyone else feel the same, and how do you deal with it? How do you stay optimistic?