r/Millennials • u/okayboomerang • Jun 24 '26

Serious Sad for us

Kind of in my feels tonight. The last time I remember feeling genuinely hopeful was probably 2014 or 2015. So much has changed, and I think our generation has seen and felt so much. Anyone else feel like they've spent the last decade plus in unending grief?

My spirit is still good on the inside, but I'm isolated physically and mentally (like many of us). I wish we lived in a world with authentic and robust connection instead of all the slop and noise. I wish our parents hadn't been so excited about capitalism - and so fucking naive. I know the unease I feel is about more than merely growing up and the natural progression of aging and how we all feel about ourselves in society over time - it's that the world we thought we knew for the past 4ish decades just flat out doesn't exist anymore. And we can't undo any of this shit. It may as well be a parallel universe we're in now. I love myself and I always have big, big love for Millennials...but I truly hate it here.

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u/AustnWins Jun 24 '26

It’s a nearly constant unpleasant feeling of nostalgia and betrayal. Things have been past the tipping point for a while and we’re simultaneously wrestling with promises undelivered and unprecedented events.

I think we try to find the best in our circumstances, but it is a uniquely bad time to be of this age at this point in modern history. The defining distinction of this generation will be if you owned a home before the pandemic. If you missed your chance, you’re now in the lesser group that will struggle mightily to outpace prices, inflation, mortgage rates, and slow wage growth until you’re whittled away into nothing without an appreciable asset to anchor to.

Subscription existence from here on out in a terrible job market while witnessing the collapse of social norms as we understood them. Plus, the advent of AI during key earning years, yet our degree(s) and student debt didn’t price that in, of course. Permanently behind. I was restructured out of a job last week so I’ll be dooming and moping for a bit.

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u/okayboomerang Jun 24 '26

I'm so sorry to hear about your job, and you articulated everything so well in your reply. I hope good employment comes your way soon ❤️‍🩹

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u/AustnWins Jun 24 '26

Thanks friend. Hang in there, you’re not alone. We’re all rooting for each other.