Many of us have found our goals and desires shift a lot over time. I think there are some commitments flexible enough to be a good idea (like I'm happy I took the 10% pledge), while others lock you in in ways that won't be good for your long-term impact. My own sense of the best ways to have impact has changed a lot over time. This is also true for many others in the community.

Aside from other things that people value after retiring, there are forms of mentorship and contribution that can last long after you're no longer doing a standard workweek. Peter Singer is 79 and retired as a university professor but still seems to have a busy speaking and writing schedule. The closing speaker at EAG Boston 2023 was then-93-year-old geneticist Matthew Meselson, speaking about his work preventing biowarfare and about preventing future pandemics.

I agree with Denkenberger that there's a lot of uncertainty about what life will look like in a few decades, including uncertainty about any given career, if careers will even be a thing, if money will be less useful or more useful, etc.

Being pulled between your parents' wishes and your own is always tough! Wishing you the best in your decisions.

I think a charity that only existed to do this would have trouble getting charitable status; e.g. I think the Berkeley REACH wasn't able to get approved as a nonprofit because it didn't have a clear enough benefit to society.

There are some projects like this that charities can fund as part of a wider portfolio, e.g. the shorter fellowships Ollie points to, or career development grants. But "3 years of explore whatever seems best to you" sounds like a stretch to me.

One barrier is that nonprofits/charities typically can't fund this sort of thing. 

Thanks for voicing this!
Some places to connect:
- Magnify Mentoring aims to support people from underrepresented groups in pursuing altruistic work. I suggest checking them out if you haven't already!
- I'm not sure how active it is, but some EAs started a Facebook group EAs from immigrant backgrounds. I know family expectations about what you do with your career and money is a very common theme among people I've talked to among EAs whose families moved from lower-income to higher-income countries.

How do you get the yellow box with the draft amnesty text to put at the top?

If you read this post and thought, "I should have an elastomeric respirator at my house," these are some options my family tried on.

My husband and I realized that we both likely would have moved to the Bay for work if we weren't married to each other and putting down roots in his home city. There's a lot of benefit we've had from living near his family, and near the folk dance community through which we met - Boston is a hub of that. 

We're lucky that one of us was from a city that has turned out to be a pretty good location for EA involvement, and a good location for in-person work in biosecurity. I have a lot of empathy for people who didn't happen to have that as a starting point.

Hey, I'm sorry things have been feeling so bad!

Ultimately, I see the goal of EA as more good experiences and less suffering. When you have a day that's ok instead of awful, when you make music that gives you satisfaction, when you have a good lunch or a good nap or a good experience of any kind, that's a win. You're not just here to create achievements, you're here as a living being whose experiences matter.

I'd echo Dave that talking to somebody (beyond LLMs) seems like a good idea.
If you're not already getting medical/mental health care for depression, I'd strongly suggest that too. I think this overview by Scott Alexander is a good place to think through some options, or maybe skip to some recommended steps for treating depression.
Justis' piece If you're unhappy, consider leaving is worth a read for anybody who feels like they're not "succeeding" at EA.

I was in a conversation recently about how organizers usually don't have managers. A board member of a city group said to the organizer of that group, "Should we start having regular calls every few weeks?" and the organizer said "Yes please!" 
If you're an organizer with a board, or a board member of a group, consider if you should do regular management or accountability-buddy type calls!

I agree that separating out community posts was not just a reaction to the FTX situation. Early in CEA's time running the Forum, the community section was an entirely different page, as you can see in this 2019 Wayback capture.