RE: "When are you ever going to finish something?" The Power of Quitting
I've also found myself quitting a lot more things as time goes on. I agree with you that it's often the right thing, like when you are being treated badly and are unhappy every day, when you feel like staying is changing you for the worse. We do live in a different world than our parents did. It made sense in their day to stay at one job and work there until you retired. It doesn't for us, usually. If we are even lucky enough to find a job in our field, the pay is not enough for us to survive on independently, much less to have a family and buy a house. I think this is one reason why there is such a rift between generations. The older people can't understand why we won't settle down and get on with our lives, but the economic reality is that we can't. It's hard to know what to do and how to beat the system.
I think it's important to stick with a project if you really believe in it and are passionate about it, but even then, in something like film, you are depending on so many other people, and if they aren't coming through for you, it can feel almost impossible to succeed. I had so much frustration my first few years making films as a student and amateur (I am still an amateur--hopefully that will change to professional someday) because I worked on many projects that never got finished, so I had put in a lot of work and effort and had nothing to show for it. I think that was why I stuck so tenaciously to my student film and finished it three years after starting even though I knew it wasn't a masterpiece or anything. Thankfully things got better and now I have a few finished short films under my belt, but getting to that stage has been incredibly painful.
This is probably the best comment I've received so far!
It's great to meet someone who seems to understand me so well.
I feel like letting my parents, I mean father - and all those other parents who have still got their heads stuck in the 70s/ 80s - read this, to actually understand me/ our generation.
For your information, I also quit my job as a teacher in July 2016, just before I went to the Canary Islands. I did this to recharge my empty batteries and rediscover my creativity. My aim was to make a feature and this transformed into my Spanish feature film project.
Especially my father found it very hard to understand my decision. Even more because - after three years of struggling - I was finally offered a permanent contract. Something that is pretty normal in The Netherlands. That was exactly the reason why I quit: I was afraid quitting would be even harder with a permanent contract, didn't want to loose my freedom. Besides all that, I didn't like my job enough. It drained me (from my creativity) and I was close to a burnout.
In that case too, quitting was the right decision. Now, a year and a half later, I feel Steemit - and investing in cryptocurrency - has started to become my savior/ lifebuoy :)
I must congratulate you with sticking to your student film and actually finishing it. I worked on a short film for 8 months, back in 2010-11 and that felt like ages. I followed it up with 9 short films in a year in 2012. Back then, I actually finished films, haha!
Well, shorts are most definitely easier to pull of than features, I am sure. :) I can't even imagine doing a feature, honestly, though I would love to try in the future!
Yes, I understand about working at jobs that drain you creatively--it's kind of like a lose-lose situation, because you need the job to survive until you can start making money from your creativity, but you don't have the freedom or time to focus on your creativity while you work. :(
I found this article very good for explaining the situation of millennials, though I don't really agree with the solutions offered in it. Maybe it would be something your dad would be interested to read? http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/poor-millennials/
By the way, I'd love to see some of your films. :) Are they online anywhere?