Including your age is appreciated but not required
That I’m alive. Suicidal depression is a hell of a drug.
When I was 17 I was fresh out of high school and had no idea what I wanted to study or do. I’m 34 and have studied a myriad of shit by now but I guess what is most surprising is that I still don’t know what I want to do.
I’m 44. The fact I’m still living. Nothing is wrong with me health wise. It’s just that past 40 is such a long time to live.
What really made it hit was when I gave more thought to how much trash the human race has created, even in 20 years, let alone since the wave of products in the 50s.
Like, I think it can just end any time. We had a good run.
At 21 years old, I would never have thought I’d be living in [REDACTED] with 4 kids, a GF and awell paying job I actually like.
Alternatively, 21 year old me would probably have his mind blown if I’d shown him all the places in the world I’ve had the pleasure of visiting.
How much of working is emotional prostitution.
My boyfriend cares about me. Like, deeply. Like he will go out of his way to do things to support me. I was raised being told over and over that men are selfish and generally more concerned for themselves than their wives. That I need to be prepared to shoulder more of the burden. This is weird. He’s super nice. I can’t get over it.
My wife is like that for a lot of valid reasons. If I may give you a useless piece of advice, enjoy it instead of fighting it because he may be serious about what he is doing.
parents project their shit onto their kids, it sucks.
a lot of unhappy people, refuse to let anyone around them ever be happy. you’re allowed to be happy. don’t let other folks unhappiness ruin yours, because they will try very hard to ruin it for you.
I see this depiction of men all the time, and it just baffles me.
At the end of the day, most men are so happy when they are able to provide, protect, and support their wives / families / friends. Doing so is how most men measure their success in life. As Eddie Murphy said, all we really ask in return is the big piece of chicken.
because it’s a projection. the women who complain about men being like that… are mostly talking about themselves.
i’ve dated many women who thought that way… and they are talking about themselves. they see the world through an adversarial lens and everything is about them having power over others and being terrified of anyone having power over them.
and if you explain to them you don’t want any power over them they simple don’t believe you. they think it’s a lie or a manipulation tactic… because that’s how they treat everyone, through lies and manipulation. and no matter how honest you are with them… doesn’t matter because they don’t believe honesty exists.
I had a dead-set career path (game design) and even went to college with this path in mind. When it all came together and I finally had the opportunity to do it, I made a sudden decision against it.
Ended up being the right choice, but I don’t think my younger self would believe it.
That made me curious: what’s your current field? And has your college degree been useful in another way than originally intended?
Wow, I could write something similar. It was game dev for me. My younger self prepared for the college path. I didn’t deviate. I didn’t land a job in the industry and now do something similar, which isn’t exactly games (VR training simulations). Best decision of my life.
Younger self might be disappointed I don’t make cool games.
I studied video game art in uni, but left the course after 1.5 years bc it went in a different direction I hoped for (it went all-in on 3D, and the 2D I was actually interested in was done in a month). By that point I already had a part-time job as graphic designer, so I continued that instead, and eventually managed to land a graphic-designer-ish job at a non-profit organisation.
My current job is a lot less glamorous from the outside than video game art, or even a typical graphic design portfolio would be, but I really enjoy it :)
Some of the teachers said “go to college and get a job like ours”, some said trades are a good idea. The one guy was like “you’ll move through tens of careers and IT WILL BE GREAT!”. But, at no point was flexibility encouraged. It was “find your calling and pursue it ruthlessly”. I wasn’t sure what to major in going out of high school, because lots of stuff is cool, and they thought that was the worst thing ever.
Sorry for how trite and predictable this is, but even though I was pretty cynical half my life ago, I couldn’t have imagined so vile and corrupt a personage occupying the White House as what is there now, nor how easily and with how much cooperation they’ve been able to destroy the Constitution and government that was based on it.
yeah felt like nixon was an anomaly and reagan and um man bush jr. seems pretty typical for these guys, but surely it could not get worse…
I am surprised that I made it out of my 20s and 30s alive. I also didn’t expect to have a job that aligns with my ethics. I am a caregiver for high functioning adults with special needs and pretty good at it.
The two things I think would be most surprising to 25 year old me would be that I still skateboard regularly, and how happy I am being single, as they’d just gotten married and been told they’re too old to be skating.
I’ve heard about this guy named Tony who still skates at the age of 58. He’s pretty good at it too. I wonder if he ever considered a career in it.
Tony Crow? Yeah he’s my neighbor. Great guy.
No, Tony Magnusson, but I’m pretty sure he retired
Ooh, skateboard grandpa. That’s a vibe, I dig it.
(Yes, I know 50 isn’t really a grandpa. Zaddy, maybe?)
Had to look up Zaddy, will absolutely take it
The biggest surprise would definitely be that I’m trans, so I look completely different now than 19-years-old me might have imagined :D
IDK. I think the half part is what gets me on this. I’m a similar age to you. But my 19 year old self was definitely a repper. My 12 or 13 year old self would be shocked. My 19 year old self would be understanding but horrified. They can both pound sand. I would have a lot of fun tormenting my 19 year old self. Would torment him with lurid descriptions of how I’ve had srs, am married to a cis het guy, and all that that implies. 🤣🤣🤣
oh I had to look up “repper”, I see now :)
I know many trans people know their gender identity from an early age, and have strong convictions despite society’s pressure, but being agender, I had no strong convictions about my gender, it wasn’t even there. And I always tried to be practical, and so the only option that seemed available was to just try to put up with my born sex and assigned gender no matter how unhappy they made me 🫠
Same age. 19 year old me had never even heard of trans people, so it would definitely be a shock, but I’d like to think a welcome one.
I sorta knew that trans people existed, but didn’t know of hormone replacement (in the '00s Hungarian tabloids only spoke of surgeries when they mentioned trans people 🙄), and since I couldn’t have passed without that, it never crossed my mind that me being trans was an option.
That everything I learned about computers from assembly language in the 80s to tinkering with all the operating systems in the world would be thrown in the trash by a bunch of moronic managers who decided that ChatGPT was better than learning and being curious.
And as a result, that I would be disgusted by what is happening with programmers, and that I would find another job that does not involve any technology whatsoever. I loved that shit, I hate what it has become.
What job did you switch to?
No job yet, I have a lot of ideas but it’s difficult to change when you’ve been focused on computers for so long.
Wishing you success in your career change!
Thanks!
I’m not sure 20 year old me would be very surprised. I ended up pretty much exactly where it would be expected of me: still single, living in a garage, working a dead end factory job. No possibility of ever owning a home and dwindling possibly for any kind of retirement.
Probably the credit card debt. And learning how long that asshole cat I got as a sophomore in college ended up living (18.5 spiteful years).
Mid-forties now. Mid-20s me would be surprised to know that yes, he does have major depression and doesn’t have to just find a way to work around that. A lot of great things came after that, but many unnecessarily bad things in the interim. Now I’m just what I feel to be a normal amount of depressed! 😅
