As of this past Saturday I have finally decided to stop shoplifting.

Let me first say I’ve dedicated a substantial amount of my life to shoplifting and stealing. I’m not some redditor who never lifted anything. I’m also now 37 years old and I can say with certainty there’s nothing in it to be gained any more. This is why I’m stopping. I can elaborate further though…

At this age no one cares that you shoplift and have nice things. People just don’t give a f*ck. It’s different when you’re younger because material possessions are so much more important to everyone. Now it’s like ok good for you but I don’t really care at all that you have a Rolex or if you have a Casio. You win no special points for putting in the risk. This is also true with women. They’re more interested in your personality than your stuff past the age of 35.

Adding to the point of #1, no matter what I do at this age I still won’t get very rich. The money is only one part of being successful. The reality is even by being smart with budget and staying productive, I still look poor. Or at the very least, I look poorer. No amount of shoplifting can change this and it’s very discouraging to put in so much risk knowing that your reward is so limited because you simply cannot compete with the big corporations that have all the resources. I’m talking about in the bank account here. Wealth has arguably been better in my 30s than my 20s.

Everything sucks. And I’m not trying to sound like a beta loser here but it’s impossible to enjoy and escape the law when it feels like I’m just endlessly trying to avoid the security. There have always been times things sucked over the years when I was younger so this isn’t about giving up to when those annoying charges eventually drop. I can still run and dodge them. The difference now is that those annoying charges seem to have no end in sight. Before I could work around them and after awhile get back to feeling free and in a good mood. Now I just endlessly manage the legal troubles every single day. It sucks.

Adding on to #3, I can’t really make progress. Part of this is being older too and part of it is if I’m always managing the smaller legal troubles I’m never in a state where everything can be smooth so it’s f*cking hard to actually feel like I’m making progress. All the effort goes to just surviving and that’s seriously sucking the joy out of shoplifting in the first place.

Everyone else is rich. The bar for people thinking you are successful is so high and you really don’t get extra points for clearing the bar lower than need be, unless you clear it so low you’re breaking the world records which I’m not and that’s more of a fame thing that people are attracted to anyway fyi. So if the bar is high and there’s no points for clearing it much lower than need be what’s to be gained by obsessing over it so much and stealing perfectly for that small extra edge that no one even notices except me?