For the past few generations, the standard wisdom was that if you wanted a career that paid well you should to go to college and get a degree. However, there are and have always been well-paying careers in non-academic fields, from the trades to starting a business to driving a delivery truck for UPS.When a UPS driver shared his weekly paycheck on social media in 2023, people were surprised to learn how lucrative a gig it can be—$44/hour kind of lucrative, in his case. Drivers were already known for being paid well, but a union win in the summer of 2023 bumped up pay even more. Working 40 hours a week at $44/hr would earn you over $90K a year, and according to folks who work for the company, it's not unusual for UPS drivers to top out in comfortable, six-figure salaries.But even with that pay, is being a UPS driver worth it? Here's what experienced drivers have to say. A UPS employee who'd been working as a package handler for a couple of years was considering applying for a driver position and posted a list of questions for UPS drivers on Reddit. The following answers are pulled from that Reddit post and others:How much can a UPS driver expect to make?"Depends on where you are but generally $40 [per hour] after 4 years." – Shasfowd"We have a guy that never graduated high school. He made $120k last year." – MrOddYazz"Believe it, I took over thirty unpaid days off last year and still breezed past a 100." – _aIIan_"127k last year. On track for 130k this year. ?" – chavo2021What are UPS driver hours like?"You’ll make a good amount of money, but you won’t have a ton of time to yourself and with your family." – WassabiReindeer"About 50-60 hours a week." – Shasfowd"This job has one of the worst work/life balances and I worked In a hospital before this and have had many jobs. This one will have you making stacks of money with great benefits but who knows how far that goes. If I didn't have a huge medical problem I would've left years ago but like many others I am trapped. If this was a regular 40 hr a week job I'd tell everyone I have one of the best jobs In the world. However, that is not the case." – AnimatedAnixa"Expect to work a butt load of overtime." – Joe12van"Between 50-60 hours a week. Basically for the first couple years, don't make plans in the evening time." – KCD_OG-78How difficult is it to become a UPS driver?"Pretty difficult. Classes will be around 10-20 drivers, and by the time training is finished there will be about 5 of you. By the time you're done with probation there will be 3 of you and within a few years at most you'll be the only person from your training." – Shasfowd"The first two years will be the toughest. I'd say if you can make it through that, it gets easier.....well mentally, not necessarily physically." – KCD_OG-78"Qualifying to be a driver is one of the most stressful things I have ever done based on my life at the time I went to qualify." – Financial_Skirt4251"It’s all by seniority, so you have to do your time loading trucks and wait. Loading isn’t easy and is only a part time job. Usually loading 3-4 trucks yourself on a morning shift or loading a whole tractor trailer front to back floor to ceiling by yourself at night. There are other part time shifts. You can wait years to get enough seniority to bid a chance at driving, but it depends on the location you work.If you made it this far, you’ll get taken out on a road test by a supervisor. If you can drive ok, they’ll send you to get a D.O.T. health physical by one of their approved doctors.After that, you get sent to ups boot camp and have to pass tests on all the basics and knowledge to drive. Don’t be late, have your uniform ironed and clean, and memorize the 5’s and 10’s.Then the hard part begins. It’s a 30 working day torture test to see if you can hit the company’s extremely unreasonable production numbers while driving, learning a route, working safely, figuring out how to manage customer relations in a way where you can keep moving, all while under extreme time management.If you make it, you’ll then be bounced around on dozens of routes covering them and learning all of these things over on each one until you have been a driver long enough to bid a permanent route assignment.You better believe every driver you see out there has earned their place as a driver." – Hitsthebrakesnows_What else should people know about being a UPS driver?"I worked as a computer programmer freelance 2 years before UPS. And I would pick UPS again and again. Even though we get treated like sh*t and most days are a nightmare. Trust me. Without the $100k+, and benefits. I would not be here." – AdProfessional9809"I like it, but it's not for everyone. I know a lot of preloaders that have given it a shot only to decide they don't like it." – Shasfowd"If you top out and kill the over time you can probably make 80-120k a year. But this is a hourly position and you work for your money. Whenever a driver brags to me how much they made last year. I cringe and sauté because I know how many hard hours they work. Not a easy job not a easy start. But once you get seniority and master the craft. Seems to be rewarding." – sprucetre3"Have an exit plan if you decide to become a driver. Being good at manual labor and driving a truck can only carry you so far. Especially because the company will demand most of your time.. your life around work can easily deteriorate. Be prepared to be tired a lot…if my son were 19 and he wanted to be a UPS driver..knowing what I know and having dealt with what I’ve dealt with I would try and steer him into a different career BUT to each their own." – BEAR_STORM" I wouldn't recommend this as the first career choice for my child. I always said it's a horrible plan A but great plan B." – gunstarheroesblue"Been driving for a year and a half now. Benefits are phenomenal. I've always done labor, decided it won't be for me. I start college in January. Thinking of going part timer here and UPS helps to pay for college." – DCostalotThe general consensus seems to be that the early years are tough but it gets better if you stick it out, the job is demanding with long hours and you will work long hours at Christmastime, but the pay and benefits are phenomenal. Some people love it, some don't. Like all jobs, being a UPS driver has its positives and negatives, and whether it's worth it is an individual judgment call.

Most of us have a desire to improve our health, sleep more soundly, have more energy and just generally feel better in our daily lives. And yet those things feel elusive to many of us, so we're always on the hunt for hacks that can help us—and if those hacks don't require a huge change in lifestyle or herculean feats of willpower, all the better. Thankfully, there's one small change you can make to your morning routine that can make a big difference in how you feel, think and sleep, and it's refreshingly simple. In a nutshell: Go outside and face the sun. More specifically, go outside as soon as possible after waking, but definitely within the hour, and look toward the sun for 2 to 10 minutes if it's a bright, sunny day and a little longer on a cloudy one.Most of us know we get vitamin D from sun exposure on our skin, but that's really not what getting morning sunlight is about. It's about the sun's light energy hitting our eyes. As Dr. Andrew Huberman, Stanford University neuroscience professor and opthamologist, explains, "This is not some 'woo' biological thing. This is grounded in the core of our physiology. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of quality peer-reviewed papers showing that light viewing early in the day is the most powerful stimulus for wakefulness throughout the day and it has a powerful positive impact on your ability to fall and stay asleep at night."Huberman calls it a "power tool" for getting a great night's sleep and lists it as one of the six pillars people should invest in every day—morning sunlight, daily movement, quality nutrition, stress control, healthy relationships and deep sleep. — (@) While the advice to look toward the sun flies in the face of all the times we've been warned not to look at the sun, in the early morning, the sun is less intense and you don't need to look directly at it to get the benefits of its light rays. The photons still enter your eyes through indirect light, triggering the cortisol spike that sets your circadian rhythm in order. "Getting sunlight in your eyes first thing in the morning is absolutely vital to mental and physical health," Huberman says. "It is perhaps the most important thing that any and all of us can and should do in order to promote metabolic well-being, promote the positive functioning of your hormone system, get your mental health steering in the right direction."He explains that artificial lights aren't the same and won't have the same impact. Conversely, artificial light can mess up your circadian rhythm if you look at them too late at night or when you should be sleeping."There's this asymmetry in our retinal, in our eye biology and our brain's biology, whereby early in the day, right around waking, you need a lot of light, a lot of photons, a lot of light energy," he says on his podcast. "And artificial lights generally won't accomplish what you need them to accomplish. But at night, even a little bit of artificial light can really mess up your so-called circadian, your 24-hour clocks, and all these mechanisms we're talking about." The good news is that stepping out your front door and standing in the sun doesn't require a whole lot of willpower—at least not like exercise or resisting screens in the evening does. Simply go outside and stand there (though walking is even better). Give it a try and see if it makes a difference for you. And you can also see Dr. Huberman go a lot more in depth about the benefits of sunlight and light therapies of all kinds here. This article originally appeared on 1.13.24

Lifestyle influencer Alexandra Lee, 29, was shocked to learn that she and her mother have opposite showering stances and it kicked off an important debate on the platform: what’s the correct way to stand in the shower?It all started when Lee decided to renovate her bathroom and wasn’t sure where to put the bench in the shower, so she asked her mom for her advice. “When I shower, the shower head is behind me, so the water is like on my hair and down my back. Of course, I'll turn around occasionally and move around,” Lee said in her video before noting that her mother stands in the opposite direction.“But she showers primarily facing the shower head, so the water hits her in the face and down her body,” Lee continued. “She’s shocked that I do the opposite and I'm shocked that she does the opposite. I feel like the normal way to shower is with the shower right behind you and you're facing that way.”now I need to know, what is the normal way to shower?!? ? @alittlebitlovey now I need to know, what is the normal way to shower?!? ? It may seem strange that Lee hadn’t considered that there’s more than one way to stand in the shower. However, it was a big revelation for many people because it sparked a pretty intense debate on Lee’s TikTok page and the video received over 5.8 million views.“Is anyone else surprised by this?” Lee asked.The comments suggest there is an equal number of nozzle-facers and nozzle face-away-ers. But the most passionate folks in the debate were those who shower with their backs to the nozzle. They can’t seem to understand why anyone would intentionally stand in front of the nozzle and have water continuously shot in their faces, especially when it feels so nice to have hot water sprayed on your back.“Who the hell faces the water?”user2778056546386 wrote. “Facing the water is unhinged,” Not Jennifer Lawrence added. “If I face the water, I’m gonna drown,” Denise Pettersson commented. “Voluntarily getting waterboarded doesn’t sound fun at all,” Kristina Kubrick wrote.“I face away! What the hell, people FACE THE WATER?!?” Erin Trent Hohman exclaimed.There are also those with no preference and alternate throughout their shower session. “I rotate continuously like a kebab,” gentledreams wrote. “I constantly move around like a rotisserie chicken! Equal time on both sides,” Stormi Booke added.It would seem that there is no wrong way to stand in the shower, but Dr. Cameron Rokshar, associate clinical professor of dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital, says that one way better protects your skin.“The real scientific answer behind it has to do with moisturizing your skin,” Dr. Rokshar told Today.com, noting that facing away from the nozzle has a distinct advantage. “The more exposure you get to water, and especially hot water, the drier your skin becomes. If you face the shower and have a whole bunch of water hit your face for 10 or 15 minutes, and you get and out and do nothing about it, that has a drying effect. Water, as it evaporates, takes more water with it.”This article originally appeared on 12.14.23

A paparazzo caught actor Jennifer Garner performing a touching act of kindness. Instead of being annoyed at having the moment filmed by the photographer, she asked him to help.Garner was at the beach in Santa Monica, California, handing out bags of necessities to the homeless when she came across a man in a wheelchair who had no socks or shoes. Garner took the socks off her feet, gave them to the man and then attempted to hand over her shoes, but they were too small.Garner then briskly walked over to the photographer filming her and asked him for assistance."What size feet do you have?” she asked the photographer repeatedly. “Can I buy your shoes for him? He needs a shoe.” When the random paparazzo asked what size feet the homeless man was, Garner replied, “10 and a half.” @pinklover1969 Jennifer Gardner lead with kindness ... takong the time to help out a homeless man in LA. Her shoes must not have fit because she rushed over to the photographer and offered to buy his shoes. #kindness #jg #jennifergarner #homelessman #spreadlove #alwayshelpothers #hockeyhelpsthehomeless #fyp #tmznews #trending #foryou “Oh, I’m 11! Want me to give it to him? I can give it to him,” he responded, adding that Garner didn’t have to pay him for the shoes. The photographer had a blanket to give to the homeless man as well.When Garner came across the man in the wheelchair, she was handing out plastic bags filled with necessities, similar to those Upworthy reported on in March of 2022. Garner created a viral video for Instagram that showed how the average person could make bags to give a “random act of kindness” to someone in need.The underlying message of the post is that with a bit of forethought and preparedness, we all can help people experiencing homelessness. See on Instagram “Gather these essentials in a quart-sized Ziploc bag and keep them in your car to give away when you see someone in need,” she wrote on the post before listing some items that can really help a homeless person get through the day. “A pair of thick socks. Kleenex. Hand wipes. Disposable toothbrushes. Chapstick. A couple of granola bars. I forgot this time, but like to add feminine hygiene products, too. Add $5, $10, $20 and a smile.”Homelessness has steadily risen in the United States by about 6% yearly since 2017. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, roughly 421,000 people were homeless in 2022, and nearly 128,000 were chronically homeless, meaning they didn't have a place to stay for a year or more.The rise in people on the streets is distressing, and we all hope our leaders can get together to stop the steady increase. But until then, we are all called to do what we can to help alleviate the suffering we see on the streets.Garner is a beautiful example of taking direct action to make the world a better place. Whether she calls a senator to help pass gun control legislation, buys boxes of books to help school teachers, or helps the homeless, her philosophy seems pretty simple. If you see something wrong, do something. It’s everyone’s responsibility to make the world a better place.This article originally appeared on 9.22.23

There’s no such thing as stress-free living. Sure, we can mitigate it through various mindfulness practices and lifestyle choices—meditating, getting good sleep, not overdoing the caffeine, etc. But still, there will inevitably be moments throughout the day that cause some sort of anxiety. And more often than not, we won’t be able to say, “excuse me, I just need to pop out for 20 minutes to do some yoga. Brb.” Luckily, even those moments can be manageable. All you gotta do is breathe. Yes, really. Recently, neuroscientist Andrew Huberman made a guest appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” where he discussed a variety of topics frequently brought up on his popular podcast, including the benefits of being exposed to sunlight within the first hour of waking. Huberman then guided Fallon and the audience through a simple breathing exercise that’s “the fastest and best way to de-stress” in real time. First, everyone did a double inhale through their nose—a complete inhale that filled the lungs followed by one more inhale to “sneak in a bit more air.” Then they did a full exhale through their mouth, completely emptying out their lungs.Watch:As Huberman explained to Fallon, this type of breathing, called “physiological sighs,” was discovered by scientists in the 1930s. It’s something we do naturally throughout the day and during sleep, and it works by adjusting the levels of carbon dioxide to oxygen in our bloodstream, which affect the brain. Doing just 1, maybe 2, intentional physiological sighs “brings your level of stress down immediately.”Huberman’s exercise (which he affirms is not a “hack”) was met by an exuberant applause from the audience, and lots of praise from online viewers. Take a look at some of these comments: “The silence of the audience’s focused attention is audible.” “I love that he has no time for small talk and is determined to get across as much science as possible in the allotted time. Service to humanity.” “Andrew Huberman is a national treasure! He teaches us so much about so many interesting topics and does it in a way that keeps us wanting more.” “Huberman is the best thing that has happened on the internet in recent years.” “I see Professor Huberman as the ultimate example. He does what he loves, tries to improve himself daily both as a professional and a person, shares his experience with people who have the same enthusiasm. More importantly, he shares this experience for FREE for the sake of sharing it.” If we ever needed more proof that audiences are longing for more substance, this is it. If you’re not following Huberman but want more tips just like this, his Youtube channel is only a click away.

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