where bartenders go to die

being back in the bar scene, i find that so many bartender stories are all the same. they started working at a bar when they were really young and just never left. they either never knew what they wanted to do or never felt like worrying about it and then eventually, time passed and they became stuck. i see a lot of them, stuck bartenders. not bitter or angry, but just kind of chilling out, not knowing what to do, not doing really anything but hanging out and drinking and working at a bar. (i did this for a little while too, but it was temporary and made me horribly depressed.) i don't sense much despair from most bartenders like this, but i can't help but feel like they are capable of more than this, like they actually want more, but just can't figure out what it is or where to get it. sometimes i wonder if some of them will be stuck there forever. i guess it's not so much a bartender thing as a human condition. i know all kinds of people that aren't particularly happy where they are, but can't seem to work up the energy to try something new. but i notice it with bartenders moreso. maybe it's because bartenders make so much money compared to other customer service jobs that they can be comfortable enough to stay there and don't actually have to move forward. maybe it's because they can drink a lot and just numb the problem away. but it seems like it's a tribe and people don't really want to leave it. like they'd just be like the elders that decide to be left behind one day and end up wandering the forest all alone until they die. still, eventually most of them go somewhere. they do something else. i just wonder what most people do when they leave. do they get some vision of their goal and leave the bar behind to embark on an exciting life adventure, or do they just fade away into other jobs that still aren't what they really wanted? do they ever find fulfillment or happiness? do they ever find peace? does the superficial and shallow way that bartenders have to go through their work days start to kill all sense of depth? can most bartenders function in the real world? what happens to all of us when we leave? where do we end up? where do we go when the bartender in us dies?