Not everyone is mentally equipped to sing "I'm ready! I'm ready!" while hopping to work. Mornings can be a slow start for those who can see the repetitiveness of everyday existence; walking feels more like dragging yourself around and prancing excitement of singing and starting the day slowly melts down to a half consenting "Hmm."

    Squidward Tentacles is perceived as a bitter cashier at Krusty Krab who, living in Bikini Bottom, only drowns in his own self-pity. However, he's not just the average down-on-luck anthropomorphic octopus. He is multifaceted in ways that represent a large number of rather uncomfortable traits and emotions.

    The most blatant of Squidward's problems is the constant feed of redundant loud noise from his neighbours, SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star. Now, who hasn't faced the frustration of a continual blaring of music systems at parties, or the head-splitting sounds of bricks being crushed at construction sites? It takes a lot of self-restraint to not scream out complaints, and like Squidward, we often find ourselves lacking that control.

    If you can move past the noise, think of the neighbours themselves. We have Patrick who is so ignorant and blissful under his rock that he proves himself to be the most oblivious and incompetent person around. SpongeBob, on the other hand, is the overly excitable neighbour who doesn't think twice about barging in and parroting views, however unfounded, he believes in. 

    While it can be argued that SpongeBob goes out of his way to make Squidward happy, it's important to realise that SpongeBob has a perfect success rate of 0.00% and often worsens things for Squidward. Squidward deals with depression and entertains suicidal thoughts but his neighbours don't feel the need to get him to actual help but rather straps him onto ridiculous rides of what they find enjoyable.

    A reason behind Squidward's depression can be that his talents go completely unrecognised and he has to succumb to becoming a cashier at a place he wholeheartedly hates. His skill of playing the clarinet is only rarely appreciated. His higher taste in art goes completely ignored and often times disrespected. All he aspires to be is so out of reach that in an episode he is shown to bring flowers to a gravestone reading "Here lies Squidward's hopes and dreams."

    Interestingly enough, despite his general demeanour of being in misery, Squidward also has a narcissistic side to him. He has at least 492 self portraits and often thinks himself to be better than everyone he associates with. This feeling of superiority coupled with constant failure makes Squidward what he is.

    Watching episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants, it's difficult not to relate to Squidward. The six legged octopus is designed to fall flat on his face both physically and metaphorically – incidents which are often times followed up by explosions. As a wise person once said, "Such is life."