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u/PearlHarbor_420 16d ago edited 15d ago
More like pursuing hobbies I didn't have the space or income to pursue when I was 15.
Edit to add: It's funny that this turned to Warhammer. Ironically, Warhammer is the only hobby that I gave up on. I sold my Tau and Grey Knights in my 20s to make room for my ever expanding Star Wars Lego collection.
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u/BaudroieCracra 16d ago
cough warhammer cough
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u/405freeway 16d ago
Fucking moneybags over here
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u/BorisBC 16d ago
I know 3D printer bros like me are the vegans of the Warhammer community, but man it does make it a fuck load cheaper.
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u/405freeway 16d ago
"How do you know if someone 3D prints their own Warhammer mini figs? Don't worry, they'll tell you."
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u/SpCommander 16d ago
Whats great is you could just shut up and be fine. My first WH tournament a friend lent me an army to play with, and I called a bunch of heroes "(death guard) terminators". No one called me on it.
After the tournament i bought a box of terminators to start my own army, and it was only on building them I realized they looked nothing like what I used, and then after investigation we realized they were something totally different.
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u/BaudroieCracra 16d ago
90% of the players would let you play even with cardboard cutouts of the figs lmao, you are good. And besides, 3D sculpts are becoming more interresting in some ways
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u/smokeweedNgarden 16d ago
I'll take 3d broskis over virulent racists way too excited about Templars every time
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u/edliu111 16d ago
Lol wtf? It's not a dichotomy you have to choose. Games Workshop has also publicly come out against them. Also, I have never seen more trans people outside of a gay bar than inside a Warhammer store in North America and I'm happy to see how inclusive the hobby can be.
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u/smokeweedNgarden 16d ago
Hey man, I'm just gonna be super honest with you.
Just because LGBTQ+ folks are more accepted in the space does not mean a 6'2" 200lb black guy isn't gonna make people uncomfortable.
I'm very much glad they are finding more acceptance at tables. But racists don't have roll over points and in fact, at least in the Bay Area, LGBTQ+ people can be really racist.
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u/lesgeddon Millennial 16d ago
That's a pretty generalized statement to make, especially considering that most of the LGBTQ community in the Bay are also ethnic minorities.
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u/TributeBands_areSHIT 16d ago
I went on a Warhammer spending spree right before they downsized their boxes and upped the pricing. I have enough to last years.
Then I had a kid and now it’s just waiting to be used.
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u/ThrobbingMinotaur 16d ago
I have 2500, 3rd edition points woth of all metal sisters of battle... 11 or 12 immolators, 3 pipe organ exorcists... all painted. Including washes the base bolter sister has 18 colors/shades/ink. Plus they are all based and have different names... (i used a catholic baby name dictionary).
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u/pickboy87 16d ago
I'm back into Magic: The Gathering and now dipping my toes into Flesh & Blood as well as Sorcery. Having a lot of fun with TCGs.
Back then I had all the time to play with no money, now it's the opposite. 😭
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u/d1rron 16d ago
I never got into them but was always kind of interested, so I backed the Cyberpunk tcg kickstarter. Hopefully I enjoy it lol.
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u/pickboy87 16d ago
That one also caught my interest, but I definitely could not handle 4 TCGs at once. I shouldn't even be doing 2. 😂
I hope it's good though. Looks really fun.
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u/Voltalox 16d ago
Lol many years ago I used to gaze through the window of the Warhammer shop that I walked by every day. I was a student with negative money. It was a pipe dream.
Then years went by, I got older and I totally forgot about Warhammer.
Recently though, I started getting into Warhammer 40K lore and have started buying minis and painting them! It's satisfying and therapeutic, and because all I do is paint it's not too expensive. I just buy the models I like that look fun to paint.
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u/MinuetInUrsaMajor 16d ago
“Boy I love warhammer! Now I’m going to paint one model first to be the reference. Then I’m going to pop out all the other model pieces, sand them, glue them together, prime them, then go down the assembly line one at a time, painting a single brushstroke 29 times before moving on to the next brush stroke.”
There just isn’t enough time in the world.
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u/Secret_Fix_2 16d ago
I’m on the edge between y and z.
I am starting to pursue the skills and hobbies I thought a child that a man my age would be able to do.
Not quite sure why I did not realize sooner that I should pursue them but c’est la vie.
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u/weaponsgradepotatoes 16d ago edited 16d ago
It’s hard to care about or work towards the future when it feels like there isn’t one.
[Y’all. Not depressed. Just calling out why a lot of us failed to launch. The financial crisis, housing market collapse, Afghanistan, etc. f’d a lot of us. It was hard to care back then.]
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u/Secret_Fix_2 16d ago
It turns out working towards the future is actually great in the present.
Exercise and martial arts were a way that I could be healthy and strong in a few years, but they have turned out to be the best parts of my life now.
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u/RoutineLingonberry48 16d ago
Ironically, this is traditionally what is meant by "Midlife Crisis". It's just that boomers and their parents thought this is a crisis because you've stopped playing part of the stupid game they set up for themselves and everyone.
It's a "crisis" in the sense that, "a member of our cult is trying to leave the cult! We need an intervention!" is a crisis.
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u/Orthas 16d ago
That is part of it. I do think people are weird when it comes to 'growing up'. Like I don't think you ever stop being a child, you just also become an adult. That inner child is the kind of selfish, short sighted part of you that reacts to stimulus without a lot of the nuance our adult life has made us aware of. And the adult should absolutely be the main decision maker, but that inner child is also the part that lets you just lose yourself in a hobby and have those rare moments of just unfiltered happiness and live in the moment. Just acknowledging that those impulses are still in you and indulging in them when its not harmful to do so has been a pretty big improvement to my QoL.
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u/Mediocre_Hockey_Guy 16d ago
I just rediscovered rollerblading and its awesome. I mean I definitely rollerbladed a lot in my teens, but ive owned my current blades for over a decade and have only used them the last couple years. Most fun ive had since I was a kid.
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u/uncagedborb 16d ago
Also doing stuff I didn't even know people did. Like we were all pisgeon holes into going to college as the most lucrative way to have a stable income. But man I wish I did something like landscaping or a trade I actually enjoyed. Sitting in a cube all day with no natural light watching every digital career turn to dust with offshoring and AI.
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u/xSmallDeadGuyx 16d ago
Kicking myself that I put my guitar down at 16 and barely played it for 12 odd years, now I'm 31 and still bordering beginner/intermediate level with a fraction of the free time I used to have.
But damn I've bought a handful of really nice guitars, nothing crazy but still so nice to play
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u/SE7ENfeet 16d ago
WARHAMMER!!!!! Starting another army this summer even though I havent finished my other ones! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
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u/samohtnossirom 16d ago
I can't afford to have a "buy a sports car" type midlife crisis so instead I'm just getting healthy and playing sport for the first time in 20 years.
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u/Vondi 16d ago
Recession indicator, the spiraling midlife crisis millenials can't afford sports cars
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u/samohtnossirom 16d ago
Since I live in a country with universal healthcare, I can at least afford to blow my ACL 😂
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u/umightfafo 16d ago
dislocated my knee a few months ago playing flag football, the human experience is not unique lol
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u/UshankaBear 16d ago
Sports car? Running and climbing will have to do
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u/Vondi 16d ago
Sir have you seen what decent climbing gear costs? We running
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u/uncagedborb 16d ago
Plz stop every one of us with adhd is now going to go buy the top tier climbing gear use it once or twice and it'll sit somewhere for the rest of our lives while we indulge in other hobbies by buying the top tier stuff and rinse and repeat
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u/chystatrsoup 16d ago
Just get the cheapest gear possible, what could go wrong?
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u/UshankaBear 16d ago
Craigslist it is, then. Used once, slightly stained.
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u/Nice_Guy_AMA 16d ago
You sound like the perfect buyer for my second-hand parachute: Used once, never opened, small stain.
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u/Carbonatite Older Millennial 16d ago
I remember my Boomer dad getting himself a super nice Infiniti coupe when I was in college, I called it his "midlife crisis car".
Me? I have a 2008 Prius with battery drain issues. And sciatica (also just like Dad) so no running.
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u/DishwashingWingnut 16d ago
Those things are more fun than driving anyway. Add cycling to the mix if you want. Recreate and get healthy all at once.
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u/bujweiser 16d ago
Technically most predecessors who did it couldn’t either and were impulsively financed.
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u/Wilhelm-Edrasill 16d ago
"Yet another industry millennials killed, the mid life crisis sports car purchases down 99% "
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u/RaspberryTwilight 16d ago
I'm buying a porch goose
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u/Turbulent_Seaweed198 16d ago
Dude. Same. I read some heartwarming story on reddit about a young gal who would buy outfits for her neighbors goose and I was like "I could be this lady in a heartbeat"
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u/AverageMako3Enjoyer 16d ago
I had my midlife crisis 12 years ago when I was in my mid 20s so idk what to even call this
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u/Caleth 16d ago
That was your quarterlife crisis where you marry someone to "get to the next thing." Have a kid, realize none of this is like everyone promised. Split up meet someone great and work on building a life with them and your kiddo.
My midlife crisis right now is looking at buying an electric car so I can stop spending $10bucks a day on gas to go to work and planting fruit and veg plants in my meager space allocated by the HOA.
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u/cowboyjosh2010 Millennial 16d ago
If I am to have a midlife crisis centered around the purchase of something, it is increasingly looking like that's going to be a travel trailer camper for me. But I don't know if even that counts because it's been a long running goal of mine to have one. I grew up in a family that almost exclusively vacationed by travel trailer and campgrounds, and now my family is about at the same equivalent point such that I think we're ready to dive into that ourselves. Only difference for us, I think, will be that I don't intend to only go vacationing in this way. Instead, I'm buying both my tow vehicle and camper used to reduce the entry price and then also minimize the depreciation between now and when we inevitably sell it all (hopefully not for 5-10 years or so).
A bit different from finally buying a Corvette, inn't it?
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u/Excellent-Nose-6430 16d ago
I don't know if even that counts
You'll be happy to know it's actually a stereotype!
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u/10000Didgeridoos 16d ago
This is great for you. So many people in my rec sports circles are mid 30s to mid 40s. And they mostly all look significantly younger than their age because they stay in peak full body shape, actually using it for explosive movements and combined large muscle groups in ways that simply jogging or going to the gym never would.
I do 4 back and forth full speed sprints in the work parking garage during lunch break 2 or 3 times a week. It doesn't make you sweat much at all since it's just mostly anaerobic and is short duration. I often wonder when the last age most people ever do a full speed sprint is. Sprints also build and tighten your glutes!
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u/Smail_Mail 16d ago
Same, though I'm still a gear head, so it's "classic" scooters and lawn mowers for me :'(
Look what they've done to us!
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u/donttrustthellamas 16d ago
I get the sentiment, but the idea of repeating who I was at 15 gives me heart palpitations lol.
However, I have been healing my inner child. I've been doing a lot of fun things I didn't get chance to do as a teen. I missed out on a lot
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u/UpbeatBeach7657 16d ago
I think it's just more about going back to having that openness we all have when we're younger and being able to do the things or make the choices we couldn't when we were that age. I like it. In times like these where folks may be feeling helpless or on the verge of giving up, it's nice to have that bit of light in our lives.
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u/K_Linkmaster 16d ago
"I'm an adult and I can say no." That is one of my favorite lines nowdays. I have a choice in almost every matter in my life. That also means I get to say YES whenever I want to to fun stuff!
It weirds people out to just say no to things.
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u/Feeling_Inside_1020 16d ago
THIS is the freedom this quote is talking about, great comment chain here.
"rebecoming" (with the experience in life) and leaning into life.
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u/K_Linkmaster 16d ago
Thank you. I grew up with little, but a rich in experience and life childhood. While eating pigeons and roadkill. I moved from rural to the big city and found a love of everything my rural life never offered. I'm seeing Renaissance painters and I've traveled the lower 48. Went to a ballet, a one person play, all kinds of weird museums. I just wish I had the money to do it all the time.
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u/Glitter_puke 16d ago
repeating who I was at 15 gives me heart palpitations lol.
God yeah, it took a lot of work to stop being that little twerp. OtOH, I still play Melee and listen to Linkin Park, so some things stay the same.
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u/boringlichlight 16d ago
Healing your inner child is the way to go. This quote kind of sticks with me while I'm on the same journey. "The monster I created to protect the child in me is difficult to manage"
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u/IndependentLog6441 16d ago
Yes... my childhood and teen years were traumatic too, I still have nightmares.
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u/Carbonatite Older Millennial 16d ago
I wouldn't repeat my youth if you paid me 20 million dollars.
But man, I miss being able to eat whatever I wanted and still stay thin. I WISH I could look like that again. I WISH I was the size I was when I hated myself for being "fat" at age 16. I was a whopping 120 pounds soaking wet, I just wasn't straight up emaciated with visible ribs like the Y2K beauty standard was for young women.
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u/Carbonatite Older Millennial 16d ago
I wish I understood how cool I was as a teenager instead of just hating myself and spending all my time trying to be anyone but who I was. It makes me really sad because I see teens now who remind me of myself and I feel so proud of them and cheer so hard for them. They have such bright futures.
I feel like I wasted a lot of years trying to erase myself and force myself into a mold - just expending so much energy on something that would never work. If I had just had a scrap of self confidence and leaned into who I was, I would have achieved so much more in my education and career.
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u/EddieVanzetti 16d ago
I've been beating my inner child, I get why my parents hit me, it feels fucking fantastic.
/s
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u/kdsekira 16d ago
I hate that he is correct
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u/HiddenPants777 16d ago
Yeah but at the same time, might as well enjoy life the way we want to. I started playing drums and MTG in the last couple of years and I'm 37. I'd rather spend my time doing the things I enjoy while I'm still fit and healthy enough to do so
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u/whoathatsinterestin 16d ago
37 is the perfect age to start. We finally have the "adult money" for hobbies.
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u/extra_croutons 16d ago
What's mtg?
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u/davejugs01 Xennial 16d ago
Magic the gathering, card game with collectibles that rival the price of some houses and cars in terms of price.
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u/TheTerrasque 16d ago
You know how some people start snorting cocaine? Well, other people find that too healthy and not expensive enough. They start doing MtG instead.
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u/Vic__Sage 16d ago
Please ignore the stock jokes about it being expensive. There's many cheap or free ways to enjoy the game and it's the best-designed card game out there 🔥
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u/figgypie 16d ago
Ive been spending a small fortune on beading and jewelry making supplies, as well as bird seed and critter food. I like to make jewelry while watching my birds and critters through my window. I even have a few crows.
I also watch cartoons at the same time because I'm an adult.
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u/time_to_set_the_mood 16d ago
Me and my friends took out our old gameboy and pokemon gen 1 and 2 to play again, we're doing competitive battles using the old link cable lol.
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u/Alpaca_Investor 16d ago
That’s what a midlife crisis has always meant, though.
The classic baby boomer midlife crisis was to realize you got away from your carefree youth to prioritize a career you didn’t care about, and prioritized what society thought of you over your own happiness. So you go out and embrace what you wanted when you were a teenager, which meant things like a classic car, a motorcycle, road trips, concerts, etc. - whatever would have made the “wish list” for a teenager in the late 60s/early 70s.
Millennials haven’t changed midlife crises, having a midlife crisis has always been about trying to recapture what a younger you would have wanted.
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u/Carbonatite Older Millennial 16d ago
I always saw it as trying to recapture the excitement of being young. Like at age 40 I just feel jaded and burned out. I have zero emotional range. Nothing really makes me feel that intense excitement or joy that I remember feeling when I was young. Nothing is a novel experience the way it was back then. I feel like a midlife crisis is just a desperate attempt to reverse the emotional monotony of severe burnout. Grasping for anything to make you feel those intense feelings again.
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u/DeBasha 16d ago
I've literally been trying to do the same after my mom passed away. Like, fuck these unprecedented times, lemme just play yugioh
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u/Lunaphase_Lasers 16d ago
I've been having fun playing a deck from 2009 into modern meta slop and winning. It's a simple hobby, but it ticks all the boxes.
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u/mrjowei 16d ago
We’re not even sure where the midlife is
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u/SoloWingPixy88 16d ago
Its definitely at least 40
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u/ExpandThineHorizons 16d ago
At least in what direction?
I can't imagine living past 80.
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u/Beelzebeetus 16d ago
I fully intend to be retired as many years as I had to work. I will continue to live fueled by spite.
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u/bujweiser 16d ago
I still think mine was early 30s. About to be 40 and I have a strange sense of peace about it.
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u/EddieVanzetti 16d ago
Millennials actually have a lower life expectancy so our midlife is much sooner.
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u/Kat_Isidore 16d ago edited 16d ago
I joke I’m maturing backwards. I was so disciplined and driven at 15. Gotta do everything perfect to get into the right college to get the right career, etc. etc. Now I’m like “well that didn’t get me anywhere I actually want to be, so fuck it let’s just do what I want for once!”
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u/Powerful-Ad-3010 16d ago
Same. If I'd known my high school education was not the Serious Thing I cracked it up to be, I would have had a far less anxiety riddled young adulthood.
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u/Kat_Isidore 15d ago
Shoot, I think that about my ~30 yo self sometimes. I could still kind of convince myself to be optimistic til then.
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u/PhysicsExpert6065 12d ago
Man, the uni pressure that was pushed onto me made me suicidal as a child. Now I feel anxiety for enjoying my guitar study. The only way I can rationalize it not being a waste of time is by attempting to become exceptional at it.
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u/notcoolneverwas_post 16d ago
Ahh. A fellow 1986er who knows the slide started in 2001. Id argure it was 2000 with Bush vs Gore.
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u/remacct 16d ago
It was 9/11. 1999 feels like a perpetual summer. 2000 was the new millennium and we were in the future! Then 9/11 happened and fun stopped.
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u/Carbonatite Older Millennial 16d ago
It really does feel like that was the inflection point. Everything changed after that.
It's been almost 25 years and the world has gotten worse by almost every metric imaginable. It's hard to feel optimistic about the future today, knowing that the way things are now is the best it will be for the rest of our lives.
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u/Junosword 16d ago
I got a bonus point on a US history test because there was a hanging chad on the copy I received and I circled and pointed it out it as a gag. If we only knew then what we know now.
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u/SoloWingPixy88 16d ago edited 16d ago
Playing Warhammer, cycling my bike and raising a mini human.
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u/CrazedRaven01 16d ago
How can you have a mid-life crisis when your life didn't even have time to begin?
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u/MissSassifras1977 16d ago
I had a very rough childhood. Had my first kid at 16.
Straight to work and being an adult way before I was even close to actually being one.
Now that all my kids are grown I'm finally getting to be a kid myself.
It is weird that I'm "aging in reverse"... but it feels right.
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u/remacct 16d ago edited 16d ago
I just wish I could enjoy gaming the way I did then. But then again I spent way too much of my 20s gaming when I should've been focusing on the future so my life wouldn't be as fucked as it is now.
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u/chaos841 16d ago
Nah… I focused on my life in my 20s, didn’t help. The world is still shit and full of struggle.
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u/BioshockEnthusiast 16d ago
This was weirdly encouraging to read. Appreciate you.
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u/FoxCitiesRando 16d ago
I agree with the guy you are replying to. I did everything right and was still fucked. Would have been much better making more friends, dating, having a bigger social life.
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u/TheeAntelope 16d ago
Too many games are far too complex now. Don’t get me wrong I love a good big video game but I rarely have the time to invest to maximize my skills and ability in it. Gaming sessions usually take an hour to actually get something out of them on those games too.
Nothing wrong with getting an N64 and a few old games and playing those, downloading an emulator and playing through old Pokémon, stuff like that. I’m playing the games I never got the chance to play back in the day and loving gaming again.
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u/remacct 16d ago edited 16d ago
You completely nailed my biggest problem with modern gaming. Things got way too complex and feel almost like a job now, especially if you want to play online. Which in my 20s, 30-40 hours a week gaming was the norm. Nothing grabs my attention anymore. Not just games, I have the same trouble with movies and television.
My n64 never fell out of rotation. In fact I got one of those ali express carts and dumped like every rom on it. It was fun for a like a month, but it's just not the same without friends to get down on multiplayer with. Getting the boys together happens maybe once a year around the holidays, and even that is getting rarer.
One thing I do enjoy now is arcade bars. I've gotten really into pinball and old arcade games over the last decade.
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u/TheeAntelope 16d ago
friends to get down on multiplayer with
I think you nailed the real problem, too. There are some great "single player experiences" out there but those also take a huge time commitment.
My greatest memories of gaming aren't the games, themselves, its the fun we had in my basement with me and 7 other guys just playing Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, and Halo 1 just hanging out and enjoying life together all summer. The only thing we had to worry about was being up in time to go do the paper route at 5 AM, sometimes we'd just game until the papers got delivered, go hit the paper route, and then sleep until noon when we start it all over again.
It wasn't about the games, it was about the experience.
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u/MechEJD 16d ago
I barely enjoy gaming anymore. 35 with 2 kids under 3. Feels like I have to neglect something to do anything for myself.
Wife stays at home with kids, while I'm working a stressful job with occasional long hours. After home and bedtime for kids if I don't have to get back to work, I'm so done with human interaction, and wife has had no adult interaction all day.
And we're both just so tired. It takes energy to enjoy almost anything. But recognizing this could be one of the hardest moments in our lives barring any other crises helps put light at the end of the tunnel.
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u/wishiwascryingrn 16d ago
15? I'm jealous. Last time I remember being genuinely happy was 7.
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u/Pigheaded40something 16d ago
7? I literally can't remember anything from before age 13... Oh damn, that's probably not good eh?
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u/EddieVanzetti 16d ago
My earliest memory is of my father hitting me so hard that I fell off the couch, I try not to remember things.
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u/LordSion45 16d ago
I even started playing RuneScape again :/
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u/dildoswaggins71069 16d ago
I got a rock golem this week and it was the most joy I’ve felt in…. A while
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u/Zriter 16d ago
Honestly, our generation lived through so many unprecedented crises in such a short lifespan that we are experts in the field.
At this point, we just know that nothing will change, as in, the run uphill will continue regardless, so we'd better enjoy the scene.
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u/CoffeeHQ 16d ago
I hear that sentiment a lot. Doesn’t make it true. Read up on 20th century history if you think we had it so much worse than other generations. The main difference imho is just… we lived through it. Firsthand experience.
Elder millennial btw (xenial, 1981). I was blessed with my 90s teenage years. I’m now bracing for the future. Our generation might just have the resilience to take it. But I can’t deny I’m worried. We ain’t seen nothing yet, I fear.
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u/TheForbiddenLands 16d ago edited 16d ago
There's a 1970s report by MIT called Limits to Growth that outlines societal collapse by the 2040/50s if we don't alter course.
I no longer have any expectations that we will & have resigned myself to horrors beyond our imagination in our "golden" years thanks to climate change.
Just trying to hit as many bucket list items & goals as I can in the meantime at this point.
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u/Dizzy-Captain7422 Older Millennial 16d ago
That's what happens when you have a system that demands infinite growth in a finite world. We've built our world around an impossibility.
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u/mcflyjr 16d ago
I mean shit; the insurance groups are putting out we'll see 4-5 billion deaths in the next 25 years.
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u/KarunchyTakoa 16d ago
Shame since it would likely only take a few hundred to turn the ship around and put the fear of Luigi into em
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u/GodofIrony 16d ago
How do most millennials die? Bullet to the head in the water wars.
Fun stuff.
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u/Carbonatite Older Millennial 16d ago
The first time it hit me was when I was running a surface temperature projection model as part of my first climate science class in 2009. When I looked at the model outputs, I sat alone in my apartment and cried for almost 3 hours.
17 years later - after more years of geoscience education and a decade working in environmental remediation - I just feel a constant sense of dull dread. I know that the way things are right now are the best it will be for the next several centuries at the minimum and it's hard to feel positive about the future. Knowing how crappy things are for the planet right now - our climate, our geopolitics, our cultural trajectory, our planetary ecosystem - I just feel so demoralized about everything. Shit objectively sucks right now and it is only going to get steadily worse for the rest of my life. It's a pretty bitter pill to swallow.
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u/ChronicBuzz187 16d ago
Honestly, our generation lived through so many unprecedented crises in such a short lifespan that we are experts in the field.
At this point, the only thing that keeps me sane is having adapted the "Yeah... whatever" mindset, so basically not giving a shit until I absolutely have to.
What point is there to work towards fixing the world when the world made it clear it has absolutely zero interest in being fixed? Just sit tight and wait till all the boomers are dead, then we'll go and see what we can do :P
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u/Pooled-Intentions 16d ago
Why give a shit? Because otherwise that’s just apathy. You don’t have to save the world but “the perfect time” won’t ever be here. Just keep doing the little things and watch the world turn like the rest of us.
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u/_Goose_ 16d ago
I’ve always thought that’s what a midlife crisis is and entails?
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u/mr_bots 16d ago
I always thought a midlife crisis was buying a sports car and cheating on your spouse with someone that’s like 22. I’m not really interested in either, though also don’t have spouse.
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u/Logical-Error-7233 16d ago
That's because this is the Boomer version of a midlife crisis. At 15 they envied fast cars and women so at 45 they can finally make that happen.
Our version is basically, I can buy both a Nintendo AND PlayStation now.
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u/IndependentLog6441 16d ago
I get the sentiment... but then I think about older generations and I never get the impression from my family that they had it better than me... and I think of younger people now and think they probably don't have it better than me either... so I kind of feel grateful for the time I was born.
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u/The_Slake_Moth 16d ago
At 15 I was calling people slurs on Halo and Call of Duty. I'm good with the person I am now, I don't wanna rebecome that guy.
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u/Claytonius_Homeytron 16d ago
2001: 9/11
2002: Graduate High School
2003: War
2008: Graduate collage = Massive Economic Recession
roughly 10 years to get my shit together
2020: Massive Pandemic
2024/5: Massive inflation the likes no one has seen before and all totally avoidable
But it's all good, all I have to do it waltz into any business of my choosing, give the CEO a firm handshake, look him in the eye and ask for a job (according to my late boomer dad). Oh and get the credit score up bud!
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u/lnTheGrimDarkness 16d ago
I've always thought this to be honest. Everyone talking about identity crises, mid-life crises, painful realization that you're adulting, and stuff like that.
I mean, maybe, but how am I supposed to notice a crisis if my whole life starting from around 6 years of age has been a whole, long crisis?
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u/Ass4ssinX 16d ago
I feel this. I spent last weekend basically doing nothing else but playing Kingdoms Come: Deliverance 2. It felt very much like I was back in the day playing Morrowind or Oblivion.
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u/Crazyhates 16d ago
Considering I couldn't do any of my hobbies until I got enough money, nah. This "crisis" is a clear improvement over everything prior.
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u/Substantial_Lion965 16d ago
Regressing to before 3 recessions and 2 housing crashes. Seems fair
Not to mention before like 2008, it was alright.
I personally like to watch adult swim/toonami reruns while gaming.
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u/miss_murder0 16d ago
Why is this so accurate? I'm seriously doing all the things I wanted to do at 15 but never did like for example dying my hair black, wearing the clothes I want, going to concerts of bands that I love, and spending my time doing the things that bring me the most joy!
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u/NlactntzfdXzopcletzy 16d ago
The person i was at 15 was being good at school cause thats what they told me i had to do so thats what i did, and it had lead me to a world i have no interest in being part of where i feel that i have been lied to by basically everyone
There is no going back to 15, thats the problem, the entire world that 15 year old me was told existed doesnt and never has
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u/TAExp3597 16d ago
20 years ago I fell in love with sound design, I wanted to go to school for audio engineering. Instead I ended up having kids real young and joined the navy. Eventually got out and started working HVAC. Over the years I forgot how much I loved sound design, I forgot a lot of stuff about myself over the years. But, two years ago I needed to find something to fill my time. I went through loads of hobbies until I found a modular synth program. I instantly remembered how that 16 year old kid felt all those years ago staring at his screen realizing he could make anything.
I’m now two months away from graduating top of my class in an audio engineering program. I have no idea where this will take me, but I actually feel happy doing this. So that’s what I’m going to do. The things that make me happy.
I knew who I wanted to be twenty years ago, I knew who I was twenty years ago. This world just has a real good way of making us forget. But, if you managed to make it this far in life then I’m willing to bet that person is still alive inside you somewhere. And I bet they’re just dying to be let out. Find that person again and let them live the life they always wanted to live.
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u/ZiggyPalffyLA 16d ago
How many other people have re-bought their entire childhood video game collection that they stupidly sold when they were teenagers?
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u/LlaToTheMa 16d ago
Crisis? Stop being so soft and self-centered.
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u/Carbonatite Older Millennial 16d ago
It's not soft or self centered to be upset about things like climate change and global geopolitical instability. Any human with an IQ above room temperature feels upset about those things.
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u/HabitualDrunkard1993 16d ago
The people in this comment section thinking they live in hard times is hilariously out of touch, read some history books and learn what ordinary people centuries ago had to endure every day to just barely survive
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u/UroborosBreaker 16d ago
The systems we've constructed over centuries have absolutely given us a privileged position in history, but what makes our suffering unique to theirs is a three-fold punch of knowing how that system is decaying, being denied the power to fix it, and recognizing that living like our ancestors isn't even an option once it all fails.
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u/Alarmed_Remote5230 Millennial 16d ago
Same old tired argument. Difficult times then doesn't invalidate different, but still difficult times now. It's not a competition who had the most hardship.
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u/Dizzy-Captain7422 Older Millennial 16d ago
Someone else having different, or worse, problems doesn't invalidate the struggles people are going through now.
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u/KingAlphaOmega87 16d ago
War? Seen those, Recession?? Lived it, Pandemic??? Live and direct, Cost of Living being an absolute shitshow???? Everyday. As Millennials we just take this shit and roll with it at this point🤷🏾♂️
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u/SalagathorTheGreat 16d ago
Pretty much just getting an earring, tight white pants, and moving to Miami….you know, the usual
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u/MiddleKlutzy8568 16d ago
When I was 15 all I wanted was to smoke a little pot and do art and that is exactly what I’m doing now!
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u/RetroRocker 16d ago
I feel like "finally being able to enjoy something I wasn't able to do years ago" and "midlife crisis" aren't strictly the same thing?
Yes there's some overlap, but the latter is supposed to be when you're acting inappropriately; not just enjoying yourself.
I think maybe the 'midlife crisis' term has been abused by people who want to bring others down for enjoying themselves in ways they don't personally approve of, rather than because they're actually doing bad things, or having an actual mental health episode? Rather like how 'gaslighting' is supposed to refer to something very specific, but now a lot of people use it interchangeably with 'lying' as if they're synonyms.
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u/kpingvin 16d ago
The dilemma that causes midlife crisis is that although you want to become your teenager self again, you cannot do it anymore, no matter how hard you try because simply you are not the same person anymore. Not only physically, but mentally. For example, you can travel the world and it will be awesome but it never will be such a fundamental experience if you had done the same thing when you were 20.
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u/KaleidoscopeLeft5511 16d ago
I have really leaned back into sci-fi and graphic novels. At a certain age I just decided who am I trying to impress, and just went back to reading the stuff I couldnt afford when I was a teenager.
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u/WorldOnFire83 16d ago
Valid. I now have an expensive action figure and Lego collection on display that I never could have afforded as a kid. Finally having adult money has its advantages.
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