To make a circular mask in gimp, use the circle select tool, then fill your selection.

This, I’ve never understood the learned helplessness of some people. The 12,000 employee international company I work for doesn’t pay for any Adobe products. You can just use literally any other product or open source alternative, I promise you there are multiple good ones with extremely well supported professional workflows used by millions of people every day, for every conceivable Adobe product. You can learn a new workflow I believe in you, it will take like three months to get used to.

Serious attempt at an answer: I was terrified of this myself. I felt super tired on much less, had no idea how I would cope with a full day of work plus coming home and going right back out to be social or whatever. I ended up having to do it, plus language lessons twice a week. Have been doing it a couple years now. I think you really do adjust, at least a little. You find ways to rest in smaller periods, in bathroom at work, going out for a break with the smokers, sleeping when you come home etc. I find a lot of things I ended up sacrificing but I also find it’s not as hard as you might think. I even manage to cook most days, and stay on top of household chores for the most part. It isn’t a brag, and I think I fall back on the same recipes time and again. One one level, it just sort of all gets forced to be optimised, but I do also feel I have more energy

Idk, I use basically no paper at home or at my full time job. I get ungodly amounts from my language class though

I’m curious too - for many of the more public ones, it doesn’t seem wealth has helped their mental health much