Having to supply references is the reason I won’t do so many things I want to do

I hate reference culture. Do I understand the need to accomplish what references set out to accomplish? Yes.

However, I HATE asking people for favors. Is that something I need to work on personally? Yes. Is that something that is going to be solved in the next few years when it stems from childhood issues I’ve already been working on for years in therapy? Likely not.

In the meantime, I’m a fantastic dog foster candidate. I’m a fantastic volunteer candidate. I’m a fantastic adjunct professor candidate. I’m not and won’t be doing any of these things because I can’t and don’t want to ask for references. (And if I want to do all of these things and each thing requires three references, that’s NINE references total. I’m supposed to find nine people to write references or ask the same people to do it three times? Seriously?)

Could I go to the references subreddit and find fake references? Sure. That is an ethically gray area in my mind though.

In the meantime, I will sit and do none of these things instead. Rant over. Sigh.