Stuck...WTF? How did that happen?

I remember when I was little always wondering how adults got stuck in jobs and careers that they didn't like.

I can remember thinking that it was a lack of school or a lack of motivation or just plain complacency.

Now that I'm an adult with a job that I don't like I get it and I feel bad for the judgment that I passed as a younger person.  I had no clue what I was talking about.  Just one more reason I try my hardest not to judge now.

When you're 30 something years old and you dislike the career path you've ended up on, it's really hard to change course.  There are kids, car payments, rent, food and all sorts of other things to think about.

When you're 30 something years old and you dislike the career path you've ended up on you realize you've spent so much time and energy on that path that you aren't qualified for anything else.  You realize that if you start over you're never going to make as much money.  You realize that if you go back to school it's just going to take time and energy and effort that you don't have after working all day at the job you don't like.  Plus when you finally get that ever elusive degree you'll probably make just as much, if not less, than you're making right now.

When you're 30 something years old and you dislike the career path you've ended up on you realize you're just plain stuck.  So you get up every morning and go to the office you don't like to do a job you wish you didn't have and try really hard not to think about how stuck you really are.

Maybe this isn't the positivity I've been trying so hard to convey but it's certainly realistic in this middle class America existence that we somehow end up stuck in.