Since 2016 was 10 years ago and this whole online throwback trend is going around, I felt like asking. In 2016, I finished 3rd grade and started 4th grade. Fast forward to now, I graduated high school last year, started a distance learning bachelor’s program, and I’m 23 weeks pregnant with my first child, due in July.
I was working back then and now im not.
Exactly 10 years ago I was coming out of a terrible relationship with someone who was a… sociopath? Psychopath? Doesn’t matter as they didn’t believe that mental health issues were real anyway. Fortunately they were only checks notes a doctor .
But I was about to meet someone who I’d have a fling with. A 10 year-2 kid-2 house-1 dog deep fling so far.
my most abusive partner in my past was therapist… a lot of people in medical/healing professions are doing it to avoid their own issues or so the can wield power over others.
not all doctors are good people.
Then: Recently laid off from a supervisor position by Verizon because “only paying commissioned sales people = more revenue and less expenses”. Living in a little house with a constantly flooded basement with my wife and three kids. On Reddit. Bad credit.
Now: Working at a job I enjoy at the local college and living in a bigger house with a new wife, three kids and two stepsons. On Lemmy. Good credit.
2016 I was in middle school, being a disappointment to my parents
2026 I’m a young adult that withdrew from college, depressed af, still being a disappointment to my parents
(Also holy shit OP how are you already ready to be a parent? I barely figured out my life yet… 😭)
I’ve had this plan in mind since I was about 14: be 18, graduate high school, get pregnant, have my first and only child at 19, give them the best life possible, and be the best mom I can be. At the time, I had never even had a boyfriend. I met my first and only boyfriend at 16, and we’ve been together since. I’ve been taking prenatal vitamins ever since I became sexually active. Money isn’t an issue, and all things considered, the plan worked out exactly as I imagined. I’ve always been a very nurturing person, and I’ve been devouring books and content about parenting, pregnancy, and childbirth.
I’m so happy for you for knowing what you want and going for it. I wouldn’t recommend becoming a parent that young in general, but if you’re ready for it, the youthfulness will allow you to do so much more as far as keeping up with the energy of a little kid goes.
Cuddle them.
I loved it so much when I cuddled with my mom, like she’d encourage it and she’d sometime initiate it.
My dad never did that… I guess that’s just a mom-only thing?
I’m male so idk if in the future as a dad, if I can do the cuddling as good as a mom could lol.
Omg those memories make me UwU so much…
I remember my mom just letting me sleep in their bed… like… okay maybe western culture is more adverse to it, but I felt warm… I felt safe…
But now adulthood is here and I’m so sad lol…
the NOSTALGIA…
Also pls don’t yell at them… my mom also yelled at me and then I feel so sad… cause me depression…
Money isn’t an issue
Oh yea this is why idk if I even wanna start a family…
Maybe if I secured my share of the inheritance… then I’d be stress free in starting a family…
But if I get disinherited… yeah then maybe it’ll never happen… :(
On this day in 2016 I was doing some digging in the back yard, according to the photo’s from my old phone (which turns out to have been a Windows phone). Overall, I was working at a different job, and in my last year of college for my engineering degree. Kids were 5 and 8 then, me and my wife were 40. Good times I guess.
Now; different job, same wife and kids. No more digging because the garden is in maintenance only mode.
I was starting the same job I still have. I could have made a lot more money by jumping jobs as is common in my industry. But now I have six weeks vacation. Which, for the USA, is a lot.
2016 was a weird year for me. I had a strong fling that ended abruptly, and I was heartbroken for a while. It was an alright year, I was working in a steady tech job and living in a share house.
2026 I’m living in my own house with 2 cats, my partner of 7 years just broke it off with me for reasons I had very little control over. I’m utterly heartbroken and going through a similar issues I did back in 2016, though more justified. I might recover soon but it’s been a really bad few years, and I’ve not been able to make much of myself lately.
Man, I’ve really got to watch out for 2036, it might be a doozy.
This time in 2016 I was laughing at this clown who was a joke candidate for president, saying it was hilarious that he was just being a master-level troll. Then he actually became president for some reason and it’s all been shit since.
And a few months later, I was comforting my gay friend my talking about how little direct power the president actually has. Ah, naivete.
I was in university living in a house with 12 of my friends drinking more often than not. Having the best and worst time lots of exciting events and conflict.
Now im working a decent job, living in an alright house. Its boring and mediocre but I’m happy. I improve small things each day and advance slowly.
2016 i was in a shitty long term relationship for a year. it ended that summer when she fessed up she’d been lying to me about tons of things. i really loved her and i was devastated… and sadly this was the 3rd time a LTR ended this way, by someone who had lied to be about major dealbreakers and she blamed me for all of this… not to mention during the actual breakup she attacked me physically and called me a pussy for not fighting back and beating her and screamed at me that i was a horrible partner for not giving her $100,000 to pay off her debts.
I had just moved after getting kicked out of my apartment, and my company just changed management and I thought I was going to get fired. I was only making about 40K a year too. the place i moved into was tiny and shitty and I hated it. I was depressed and suicidal most days.
10 years later and i kept my job and got many promotions and now make 150K. I own my own place, and own my own car, I have pets that I love, and I focused on my hobbies, interests, and volunteering. I don’t drink or smoke anymore and I wake up almost everyday eager and happy. I am super fit and healthy and I am always learning new things as I put in the effort and its super rewarding. I haven’t dated anyone for seriously though since 2018, which sucks, but I’d rather be happy alone and achieving me goals than in another relationship with a horrible person who is destroying my life because they hate theirs so much.
Moved to Bordeaux to work on AI driven single particle analysis (he he before AI went mainstream, I was such a hipster nerd right).
Now I have stopped drinking (almost 2 years!), picked up painting, recovered from long covid/burnout and gotta find myself a new job because I was kicked out because of aforementioned afflictions (I’m good now but it was a hard ride).
But spring is coming, Ukraine starts kicking Russias butt, renewables are taking over, the future seems uncertain but I think we’ll figure it out.
Cheers!
Ahhh…I was with my husband in 2016!
I’m still with him, so probably the same thing as now.
Not much has changed other than my health mysteriously imploding.
2016 was an interesting year for me. I had an odd week of coincidences that appeared like a hypomanic episode that never happened before and never repeated again. The biggest one being that I was dating a guy who had just told me that his lifelong dream was to meet his favorite band. That week, I won a radio contest that got us tickets to a concert with a meet-and-greet at a tiny venue with that same band.
The episode prompted me to finally see a psych for the depression I’d been dealing with for most of my life. It started me on anti-depressants, which have massively improved my quality of life.
But the biggest thing was that the episode included a day of absolute clarity. I was driving and thinking, as I’m prone to do, when out of the blue everything just made sense. I could see in my head how everything was connected to everything else, and it was intense. But I’m a skeptic, and I needed to know that I was still grounded in reality, so I pulled over into a parking lot and called a friend. I asked him to help me make sure I was still making sense and I wasn’t going off the deep end. He’s a deeply rational guy, known to recognize bullshit, and yet as I talked on and on about the many puzzle pieces that now seemed to fit together, he remarked that yes, I was still making sense.
Key to it was the feeling that it was a sort of enlightenment, the same kind that religious folks might feel after years of meditation, or that some people experience through psychedelic drugs. There was a strong sense that I was not alone in that sensation, that many others had felt it before and that when they did, they had the same epiphany that we were connected directly. The sense of peace was incredible. I don’t believe in a god and that moment did not change that, but I did come away with a new respect for those who take their faith seriously and sincerely (that is, not like the christians in the US that use it to spread hate, but rather like the monks who give up everything to pursue their spiritual journeys.) I could feel the immensity of the universe, and see in my mind’s eye an infinite web that brought everything together. I could mentally travel that web from point to point, seeing all different perspectives at the same time. It was wild, and hasn’t happened again since.
Despite it being so brief, the few hours I spent in that state have impacted me to this day. Some things that used to bother me didn’t annoy me anymore. Finding patience became much easier. It also became easier to understand and connect to people.
One more weird thing that started that week and never stopped - I developed the uncanny ability to spot four-leaf clovers. I can’t count how many I’ve discovered in the ten years since, but if there’s a four-leafer in a patch that I walk by and all I do is scan it in my periphery, I will stop, reach down, and either point it out or pluck it to give to whoever I’m with. It’s like they jump out to me. It’s fun having a strange talent that makes people happy.
You had an upsight. If you have any patience for long scifi novels you should read Anathem. It has a lot of philosophy about thoughts and epiphanies. Pretty good book.
I loved that book. No one seems to talk about that one, despite Stephenson having so many fans. I guess it is a bit dense, but so interesting and fun.
In 2016, for most of the spring and summer I was hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. In December I ran a marathon.
This year I’m a father to a kindergartner, and aside from that most of my mental energy is going into renovating my 100+ year old house.
Well it looks like we were at the beach with our first kid
Today there are two of them and their friends are about to come over
