I entered the world in January 2008, so it was a pretty big year for me. Hard to believe it’s been 18 years already.
I was finally finishing my degree after dragging it out a couple extra years because I could afford night classes without taking loans.
It feels absolutely insane to me that I was working a labor job, paying rent, and taking part time classes back then without accruing debt.
Juuuust out of college, perfectly in time for the housing bubble to burst and all the jobs evaporate.
I lost my gf, my house and my job that year. I was not ok.
College. Having fun with friends. Economy was crashing. Jobs, if you could find one, were trash. Democracy was still safe though. The dumbest members of society weren’t dictating our future.
So just kind of a mix of fun and stressful, with less existential dread.
I was in elementary school, parents took me to Ron Paul rally which was pretty cringe. Reading Warriors books, watching Star Wars the Clone Wars, mascot for older sisters robotics team.
I remember being very confident and optimistic. I had just started college, and nerd shit had just become the dominant force in our culture.
People were joining the internet and connecting via Facebook which I thought would lead to world peace.
Bush was out of office and Obama had won.
The iPhone meant I could use the internet and apps whenever I was.
Everything was becoming higher quality. The fast food restaurants were all remodeled to look like actual buildings. TVs in waiting rooms became all flatscreen, something I associated with the very wealthy.
Every brand was trying to copy apple so everything became a lot more white and clean. Simplified.
I had discovered reddit which felt like cheat codes for knowledge, especially since I was the only person I knew in real life who knew it existed.
Ding ding, except Android instead of iOS and I was just in Highschool
Drunk, got fired for being a drunk, sold plasma to get a daily McDouble and a couple 40s. Read library books until my landlord (wife of the woman who fired me) evicted me.
What a low time to look back on. So glad I got sober.
Feel bad for the kids today, at least older people can remember what hope felt like.
Meanwhile my parents tells me how much they had to suffer in China and how much things have improved and constantly tells me to “be grateful” because I have more variety of food to eat and “shouldn’t be picky about food” and “complaining”
Also tells me about many people being undocumented and that I “should be grateful for being so lucky of having legal status in the US”
(I literally never said I was ungrateful lol, but its this constant guilt-trippin every time my mom think I’m “being ungrateful”)
Just graduated university. Couldn’t get a job in my field. Couldn’t get a job at Taco Bell. Sold my body for money.
I never enjoyed my early years, I was consistently bullied at school and the school itself never made me feel challenged mentally. In a couple years I’d switch school which would let me to meet my first love and set my social health back up.
Wasn’t terrible, wasn’t great, but I was younger. Cherish your youth.
It was a terrible time in my life… no job and no friends. Family overseas…
curious about the “family overseas” thing
Did you move abroad or did you family abandon you in your home country?
Cuz that is a huge difference.
I think because of the circumstances around my birth (illegaly born against One Child Policy) I would’ve been left behind in China if they couldn’t get the legal documents for me to leave…
It’s terrifying to think about… would my parents actually abandon me and just focus on their 1st born child instead?
I voted in my 2nd presidential election that year.
Sadly, I was still just beginning the very first stages of realizing God is the biggest scam in the history of the universe, so I voted McCain.
There is a lot of my past I’m not proud of. But given that I didn’t really have a lot of human contact outside of church members until I was almost 14, I gotta give myself a little slack. But it’s still embarrassing af.
My first election, I voted conservative because that’s just how my family voted and I didn’t know better. I get your embarrassment.
Miserable, but a different kind of miserable.
I was 22 and struggling massively. I’m told there was a financial crisis but financial crises don’t really affect people with no money, no job, no prospects and no hope.
Believe it or not there was 15 years of going further downhill from there, with depression, drugs, alcohol, crime and insanity.
