What are you doing to pass the time?

[katiebooker 0]

I'm struggling with how to pass the time while waiting for my visa. I don't have my NOA2 yet (~6 months in, TSC) so I likely won't have my visa until close to the end of the year, if not longer. I know the general advice is to stay busy but I'm having trouble doing so. Here's my current situation:

 

• 10 months ago I moved across the country to a new city to move in with my parents after finishing my second degree (I'm changing careers). I don't have a job and probably won't get one before moving to the US because I have no experience in my new field and it doesn't feel fair to have an employer take the time to train me and then up and leave after a few months. Although I don't have work to keep me busy, I do go to a coworking space every day to get out of the house. I'm trying to spend that time building my skills so that when I do move I'll be hireable but it's hard to focus when I don't actually HAVE to do anything and I end up spending most of the day obsessing over the visa process instead. Not having a job means I also don't have a lot of money to do things outside of "work".
• I don't have any friends in this city. I talk to some people at the coworking space, and I talk to some people at the fitness classes I go to, but nothing where we'd spend time together outside of those places. I've tried meetups before but whenever I mention that I'll be moving to the US sometime this year (I've tried to avoid it but it always ends up coming up) the person I'm talking to loses any interest in being friends. 
• I don't feel comfortable at my parents house because 1) I'd been living on my own for years before moving in with them and 2) I have a stepmother that makes me feel constantly judged (like asking me why I am not more like her favourite niece) who is always home because she is retired. I also don't have any space in the house to buy/store anything I'd need for any of my hobbies so that's out of the picture too.

 

So not only does getting this visa mean that I'll finally get to be with my spouse after 5 years, but I'll also get to live in an environment where I'm comfortable, have a job again, make some friends, and (after wanting one my entire life) get a dog. I feel like right now I'm stuck in a holding pattern and things are going to get so much better once I'm in the US and it's making the wait feel like forever.

 

With that mini vent out of the way, what are you guys doing to pass the time?

 

[Roel 7,192]

Volunteer (maybe animal shelter?), gym, get a hobby. You know, there is like thousand hobbies you can pick from. 

[TBoneTX 45,309]

Thread is moved from the CR-1 Process forum to General Immigration Discussion, where similar topics have been posted.

[Precisely 95]

Appreciating my last days of lying in bed like the Vitruvian Man

 

But seriously, you should learn to be happy with yourself and motivated to grow on your own. I doubt you're living in a slum so you have the internet, hobbies, jobs, study and social groups galore. Do you have any idea what you could do in 9 months if you put your mind to it? Learn an instrument, get a social job, volunteer. Not to be patronising, but we're creatures of habit and you may feel the same in America despite being closer to a relevant job and your partner. Key message is you have to be responsible for your own happiness.