u/FamiliarIllustrator2

Hi. I’ve, 26F, been on a journey trying to get back out there after a long time being celibate, intentionally because the last time I was I caught something and had to be treated after dealing with a heap of symptoms, and unintentionally because my confidence and previous roster have also faltered with my weight gain and life changes.

I started talking to people on tinder, men and women, and it was going somewhere for some. Either it would be flirting with sex talk and even pics sent from them. I don’t send pics because I also nearly got burned in that area too. Or it’s cutting dry planning to hookup. But I always clarified I need to meet in public and do testing first if we get along.

Well I get that maybe my flirting skills may be rusty and my chances have been cut down from lack of recent experience and weight gain. But it seems like things are going well for some but then it turned to ghosting. Also some outright were bewildered that Id want to do testing for “just a one night stand” or think I want to have sex unprotected because of it.

When I caught something in the past, the person basically lied about everything and people ended up exposing him for being a terrible guy all around. Im not trying to go down that road or worse again. But I’m getting tired of not getting it in or doing things for myself, and hearing about everybody else getting theirs. I also hate feeling unwanted. Especially for so long.

What are your thoughts on what I should do?

I’m at a cross roads right now between choosing an adobe photoshop course or a photography/videography production course at one of local professional development institutions.

I’m stuck for multiple reasons:

1. Both courses are over $1000. I know some of you may say I shouldn’t pay that much for a course on any of those subjects but I need to accountability, consistent training and connection of an instructor and peers. Photoshop is 1600 and Film is 1200. So I’m leaning towards the film course as well because it costs less and the courses start mid next month. I only have so much money to spread while also balancing a family trip.

2. The photoshop course would be more essential to my current career in marketing where I do heavy graphic design for print and social media. I don’t have formal training and would love to fill in the gaps that I feel are holding me back. So I’m leaning more towards Photoshop to advance my career as I desperately needing a change from my current job, and hopefully a position and compensation/benefits improvement to go along with it.

3. The photoshop course is heavily popular and offered every semester. While the film course is new and may not be offered again for awhile. Each semester is only three months so I figured why not just do the one I can’t guarantee will come back but I also need skills in since the other will always likely be there. But also the film course could be cancelled because of low attendance and I have to take photoshop anyway. Ive been wanting to get a new camera to dive into photography and videography so I figured why not go for the course that offers me that. But again I desperately want to get out of my job and all the jobs I apply for need the skill of adobe or others in the cloud. I want that for myself too. I don’t want to rely on canva and go nowhere in skills and career.

4. I am not good at finishing online courses. I start and dont get far then waste the subscription fee thinking ill get back to it and eventually have to cancel. Otherwise I would have done a free youtube course or even the photoshop course on Coursera. Although it looks like it may offer less than a physical course at an institution.

Which course do you think I should take? I’m leaning more towards film production for the price and scarcity but photoshop may help me get out of my job to a relevant job faster, but it’s also always there.