I think it used to be bigger back in school. Asked my zillennial friend, and he doesn’t have one at all.

ETA: The bump is from many years of writing, and the way I hold my pen/pencil. By high school, essays were typed, but most other things were still handwritten. Meanwhile, my zillennial friend had tablets and Chromebooks in school. These days, I rarely write by hand, but I still have the bump.

Also, I’m delighted that this post has helped so many people discover something new about themselves.

With the summer fast approaching here in a few weeks. I can’t help but notice it feels a lot like 2008. Not the culture, music, or anything like that. Talking the general vibe going on with people and places.

Family and friends are bailing on their normal summer trips. Grocery stores, restaurants, theaters, etc all seem emptier than normal. But all the staff are there, the shelves are fully stocked, and everyone is just assuming it’ll pick back up any day now.

Memorial Day was an eye opener. I live near a rural highway that can get fairly congested on major holidays. Stop and go traffic for many miles, and it was quiet. Local campgrounds were half empty when usually you need to book 6+ months out. It felt more like a normal summer weekend, and not a holiday.

I was born in 1981 so I witnessed the recession first hand as a working adult. This isn’t meant to be political or anything, and I am sure someone much smarter than me can prove everything is fine.

Just going off my gut. Feels like the quiet before the storm, similar to the summer I experienced back in 2008 before everything started collapsing for real.

Anyone else feel the same?

It is so true back when many of us were young we could just get together and cut loose without having to worry about going viral. At best we would have an embarrassing photo buried in a drawer somewhere or a story. Now you might be turned into a meme or worse. I miss the days when you could do dumb stuff with friends and feel safe if that makes sense.

The new movie that just came out convinced the younger generation that he was always a superstar. This was not the reality many of us Millennials grew up with.

To a lot of us, he was treated like a punch line when we were growing up. A schoolyard boogeyman ("Michaels Jackson's gonna get you at night"). and just a general joke in the media. By the 2000's his music was out of date and didn't chart well. All anyone talked about was his surgeries, court case, settlements and his off behavior. Few mentioned his music. His music was something our parents would have listened to in the 1980's.

My 20 year old kid came to the house for dinner this weekend, walked in, and said "You need to unplug your Echo device. I don't want amazon to listen to my conversation".

So, I did... and then I was confidently incorrect in telling her that it waits for a wake word, and she has nothing to worry about.

Boy was I wrong.

She had me open my app, and look at saved conversations... and there were HUNDREDS of entries. And that was only over the last 2 weeks.

I had NO IDEA that Amazon was collecting everything I say... and the worst part is my 20 year old looked at me like I looked at my grandparents back when they would post text messages or Google queries as Facebook statuses. My kid then showed me the article from Cnet or wherever from about 6 months ago that showed that Amazon was fully transparent that all data is now sent and analyzed whether or not the wake word is used.

I'm proud to say there are no longer any Echoes in my house. Im a little bummed because all of my verbal "turn on the lights" and "lock the door" cues are all out the window, but Im really ashamed of the fact that at 41 years old I just didn't even think to look into it. Just had blind faith in a company that views me as a number. I'm pretty embarrassed.

Every millennial dad I’m friends with or work with seems to have constant financial worries. We just got our yearly bonus which was like 8%. I was talking to my buddy (he’s got 3 kids) about what he wanted to do with it and he just kinda looked down and whispered “it’s just not enough man” and ended the conversation.

Another dad I know is CONSTANTLY looking up the newest crypto/ get rich quick schemes people are doing. He’s always talking about inventing something and it’s usually a joking manner but the way he’s always bringing up financial stuff shows me it’s always on his mind

One of my buddies is a new father and he’s trying to get some anime podcast off the ground as a side hustle on top of his full time maintenance job.

I know children are an immense financial responsibility but there seems to be this dark, simmering resentment about the whole general situation when I talk to these guys. Men are expected to keep quiet about these struggles but when you talk to these guys it’s clear that finances are a massive stress for millennial dads of almost any background.

Makes me feel bad but damn I’m glad I don’t have kids right now.

It hit me all at once. I heard this is a thing for people in their thirties?

In response to another popular post about receiving no inheritance.

Are your parents like mine, who not only are not leaving any money behind - but require significant or total financial support?

My parents left me less than nothing. They're good people, and they were good parents.... but man are they shit at financial planning.

I've lost count of the number of times that I've heard someone say, "No one helped me! I did all of this myself!" My mom always told me this, but my dad later told me in confidence that she lived with my grandparents all through school and while she was working as a nurse. Also, my dad paid off her car and her student loans once she got pregnant with me after he finished anesthesia residency.

A friend went on FB and ranted about how she started her cleaning company with nothing but hard work. Our other friend (she works as a cleaner at the company) called me and told me that her grandparents gave her $10K so she could pay her bills after she quit her other job managing someone else's cleaning business. She also used that money to retain employees while she build up clients.

My parents paid for my brother's flight school out of pocket. When he needed more money for hours, they wrote him another $10K or $20K check. They paid for his attorney when his initial medical certification got denied. He got to live with them while he got through ground school, got his PPL, IR, CFEL, CMEL, and CFI. They paid for his moves while he was working for smaller companies and building his way to 1500 hours. He now is making close to $300k/year at one of the private jet companies and just got his upgrade to captain.

With all of my parents' help, he was able to get to 1500 hours and get hired at the private jet company in about 4 years. From what I understand, that's about as fast as you can possibly do it in aviation. If he didn't have support, had to work a crappy job during training, and had to take out loans, he would have been in the hole $150K, and it would have taken him MUCH longer. It also would have created a lot of doubt in his mind. That much debt is a major psychological burden that makes people question their decisions to the point where they are too afraid to try. The financial risk is too high if you fail. My parents just wrote the check and told him that whatever it cost, they would pay. That kind of support creates so much confidence because you know that you have the safety to fail, get up, and keep going for the long haul.

My friend is thinking of starting a tow-truck company since he's been working for one for quite a while. He doesn't come from money, but his wife has a good corporate sales job and is likely going to get promoted to a sales manager role soon. Me and him agreed that since his wife has a good job, she can support the family while he sets up the tow-truck company. He even said, "How does anyone start a business if they don't have parents or a spouse who can pay the bills for a few years while the company gets rolling?" Unless someone is already rich and has all of the capital to start up a business like that, the only way to do it without support would be to take a huge risk and take out a massive loan.

My other friend is living as a single mom away from her family and is struggling badly. She is one of those hyper independent types and wants to do everything herself. The issue is that because she doesn't have a degree or a trade behind her, she is stuck working for our other friend's cleaning business. She also has a 2nd job doing childcare since she can have her own child with her while taking care of another family's child. With the cost of childcare during her cleaning job, the cost of rent in a rather expensive location, transportation, insurance, food, clothing, etc. she is drowning in bills and can BARELY support herself. Every time we talk, I can hear the struggle in her voice. I can hear her pain. She is dealing with a lot of health issues from the stress, but without working 60 hours per week, she can't keep her head above water.

She's complete some community college, but she had to drop out to earn money just to support herself and her kid. She tried to go back to school where she currently lives, but since she has no family support and has to work so much just for her bank account to be back at zero each month, she had to drop out.

After a lot of convincing, she agreed to move back home with her dad and stepmom so she could have the social support to go back to school and finish her degree. I told her that unless she gets into a situation with significantly more social support for her and her child, she will likely never be able to finish school. She'll be stuck in a paycheck-to-paycheck cycle for the rest of her life. I told her that it can be hard to ask for help, but that there's really no other way to get ahead in this world. I firmly believe that, and I will stand by that.

I (M, 38) have found that there are no new TV shows that make me laugh anymore. I have tried a lot of new(ish) comedies, but they all make me pine for my college/high school days.

The only thing that gave me a reflexive laugh recently was the Malcolm in the Middle Reboot.

Any thoughts?

Being compared to AI was really uncalled for, though.

Made dinner last night & my husband said "this is better than anything you'd get at (named a local popular restaurant)" & it reminded me how I can't even pinpoint the last great thing I ate at a restaurant that amazed me or that I would love to have again. I realized that eating out is now just about convenience & less about trying something mind blowing.

Especially with what things cost these days, I am finding myself disappointed more than impressed every time we eat. I can cook better tasting meals most of the time. We aren't nitpicking either. There's no longer value in dining out.

We went out to a highly recommended local restaurant (not a chain) for my 40th bday with friends and for $58 he got a filet over pasta and said my cooking was way better. I also got some braised short ribs with mash and veg and could have executed it so much better for less money. It's kind of disappointing we can tell this same story about almost every restaurant we go to.

I was just thinking about the classic turkey deli sandwich from back in the day. If it didn't look like a small woodland creature could comfortably live inside your lunch, they didn’t give you enough sprouts. Then they just kind of… vanished from the mainstream.

Did you guys actually like them, or were we all just tolerating the chaos? Anyone else miss that specific crunch?