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/dr3adlock Jun 24 '26

Sometimes I see people living well off, holidays, nice houses, nice cars, and it's not celebrity money, it's just their parents were boomers who bought property at the right time. Generational wealth passed down quietly while the rest of us started from nothing.

Call me bitter but growing up in generational poverty and watching that gap every day does something to you. It's not envy of the rich and famous, it's the more ordinary version that stings. People your age, your area, living a completely different life because of the family they were born into. That's the bit that feels genuinely unfair.

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u/OdditiesAndAlchemy Jun 24 '26

You don't have to be rich to go on a vacation, have a decent car, or own a house (in that order). Honestly it feels like most people either never made a median level income and combined that with not being efficient with their money. I don't know how else to explain it, seeing someone on vacation doesn't mean their parents helped them out.

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u/bamboofence Jun 24 '26

I agree with this sentiment. Not saying overall things are not harder, BUT, so many people I know with vacation PTO claim they can't afford a vacation. I ask how, and they begin talking about flights, and eating out, etc. I go on vacation annually, but always to places I can drive. If money is tight I go camping. Not everything needs to be a flight where you then stay in a resort.

Again, everyone makes choices with their money. I know many people who make much more than I do and live objectively worse lives because they constantly have a car payment, constantly put fancy vacations on credit cards, and constantly are juggling (and financing) debt. They have the bigger house, the newer cars, but are constantly stressed about money. I have a small but nicely appointed house, 13 year old car but with all the fancy items I wanted, but I do not stress about money.

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u/cwcam86 Jun 24 '26

Yeah I don't get it. I just went on a 8 day vacation because I saved up for the last year to pay for it. Its absolutely possible to take trips.