Including your age is appreciated but not required
I still cannot belive I am married to my wife. She is amazing. She can basically solve any problem. She is a great mom. She helps me talk through my problems, she helps me make decisions, she can hold up her end of a conversation, and she is beautiful. I’ve always been fascinated by women in their late 30’s or 40’s that were still beautiful, and now I have one living in my house.
How much I’ve started to hate technology. It’s like I had smart phones before my peers had flip phones. Same with computers; let me go to the computer graveyard room and put one together for myself. My family was very into tech so I had a computer since I was 5.
I think at this point I’m just not into it. Same with cars; I like my almost thirty year old cars.
50 years old.
- That I am as “successful” as I currently am. Measured by typical achievement of “The American Dream”.
- Why the fuck do I live on a cul-de-sac in some boring-ass suburban neighborhood with literally zero charm or culture. I should be living on the top floor of some mixed-use urban building with a subway or light rail station across the street.
- Most importantly, younger me would be so disappointed in my Christmas lights. Where are all the Christmas lights? I have a house. I can afford plenty of Christmas lights. Why are my house and yard and trees and bushes not absolutely doused in Christmas lights. Like Clark W. Griswold levels…you see younger me, it turns out that having a house is already a lot of stupid, unnecessary work, and then putting up Christmas lights and taking them down is even more work and I’m tired.
That I’m living on the other side of the world, that I not only am married, but married to a holy crap hot mom.
That I’m now also jobless due to AI
Age 50
That I’m alive. Suicidal depression is a hell of a drug.
Early 40s, and I have 2 young kids, I was going to be child free right up until I met my wife 5 years ago and knew if I wanted her kids were in my future. I also really enjoy being a dad.
Probably how cool and popular I am. 17 year old me was pretty awkward and bad at socializing.
early 50’s. did well in school and got a lot of education. I knew I would not necessarily be rich but technically in a meritocracy I should have done pretty well. I should note I have done better than many of the peers both my wife and I know. Most who have done better did so by making good connections. I can’t believe how poorly I have had to live and that my retirement is so unsure at this age. Heck I thought the increasing retirement age would reverse itself and advancement would allow for a much more utopian society. lol. also technological miracles beyond my wildest imaginations implemented in dystopian ways beyond my wildest fears.
Compared to my early 20s, living in rural Japan is probably the most surprising things. As well it should as now my plan is to GTFO to a country that believes more in workers’ rights, allows getting citizenship while maintaining an old one (need my US citizenship until my parents pass and Japan has no visa to move them here unless they’re basically homeless), etc.
Late 20’s, most surprising would be the fact that i’m no better off than I was when I got out of high school.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 🤣🤣🤣
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.
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…
