My life is one lucky decision after another and I couldn’t be happier with where I ended up. Fucked off in high school but somehow got into college (jk, I know how I got in ($$)), dropped out, fucked around, went to school for my current field literally to buy time, fucked around but got out, fucked around at work and decided to join the service. Fucking around was frowned upon so I finally turned it around. Came out, got better at civilian job, lived with friends from the service for one year in a town that happened to be like 25 miles from where my future wife was just finishing school, and so our dating profile search rings matched up for all of a couple months.
Bought a house months after meeting my future wife and it was she either moves home and we go long distance or she sticks around and figures out a rooming situation with her then roommates. That was a decade ago, and two kids, and I live on a block with seven or eight other young families in a walkable neighborhood, my kids will walk to school when they’re older, ride their bikes around, we hang out and socialize regularly with neighbors. And it’s all because I fucked around in high school.
Absolutely meeting my husband. Joining the military absolutely laid the groundwork for breaking out of my conservative/republican ideology, but it was truly the work my husband put into me to pull me in Progressive thinking. I tell him all the time how he’s made me into a MUCH better human being.
I think it’s eye opening to see how much better everyone’s lives are when they have things like free Healthcare, subsidized school, and subsidized housing.
Not to mention many of our deployments occurring to locations where religious extremism has dominated society.
The military used to lean heavily red as a rule, but I think looking around and seeing the struggles of our civvie family and friends makes us go, “Fuck, wouldn’t it be awesome if EVERYONE could have this?”
I think you’ll still qualify for Tricare after you get out. Before my Dad passed, he was on Tricare (after having been out of the military for decades) and I think they only just recently started charging for it the past few years, but it was still ridiculously cheaper than any private health insurance rates (for him it was something like $12/month vs $600/month private insurance). I stayed away from getting him on because I assumed there was something wrong with it, but nope, I only regret not getting him on Tricare sooner.
It allowed me to actually sort through all of my mental health problems and confront myself on who I was and who I wanted to be
Not to mention how much my physical health has improved
It was honestly the hardest thing I’ve done as well given that I started drinking when I was 12.
I’ve been sober now for 6 years
Edit: In 6 years it will go from “the longest I’ve been sober since I started drinking” to “The longest stretch of time I’ve been sober in my whole life”
Hey congratulations! Addiction is like an onion: it has so many layers! You’ll likely shed a tear or two once you decide to cut it open, but once diced and sauteed (i.e. overcome your addiction), it will add so much flavor to life!
Getting sober is my pick too. Im just over a year in from my last drink. Ive excelled at work, had 3 raises, finished my degree, made quality new friends, met a beautiful woman who is now my best friend, took a chance and kissed her one night, and she kissed back. Life is great.
Surprisingly (to me), having a child. I never wanted kids. Never even babysat, didn’t like them-- hated how silly, loud, and disgusting they are. Then I got pregnant by accident. I was terrified. I was abused as a child and have a bad temper, so I was afraid I would lose it and hurt my kid. Pregnancy was difficult, labor and delivery moreso, but the instant he popped out … I cannot describe to you the transformation. I am sure it is purely hormonal; pitocin is a helluva drug. My husband even said, “Who are you and what have you done with my wife?” It was akin to a lobotomy. Suddenly I adored babies and wanted to hold them and coo at them. I became more mellow and patient, went from the sort of conservative mindset that thinks “get a job,” to the theretofore incomprehensible liberal views like “most in jail aren’t really to blame for the circumstances they find themselves in, let’s help them instead of punish them.”
My son is by far the biggest blessing in my life. He is a companion that I never grow tired of, a wise sounding board, and a balm to my old age. I am literally a kinder, better person because I had him.
I killed myself. Or rather, I tried to kill myself. I mean, I did kill myself, but then I was still alive, in a new universe. My memories from the previous universe survived when I woke up here.
It made me realize that I literally cannot escape. Even through death.
That has given me a sort of “burned my ships” commitment to life that has made me truly alive. I also realized that all other humans are also trapped in a quantum immortality situation that will last for eternity as far as I can tell, so my level of caring and compassion for others has also increased.
I know it sounds totally fucked, but by realizing that I literally cannot die, it made me realize how important every moment is. Because every choice is a seed of eternity. The value of doing things right just went infinite for me, and I’ve never been happier, more productive, more generous, more committed to doing things right.
A series of experiences that I will not relate as I have zero evidence for has convinced me with visceral certainty that we are all immortal.
The thing I fear is the fact that death does exist, but only objectively. This means that for each of us who is going to live forever, that doesn’t mean everyone around us will.
I mean, it doesn’t mean they’re guaranteed to. Hopefully whatever narrative the universe produces that leads to the indefinite extension of our consciousness, will involve things that also make others around us able to extend their lives alongside us.
So we don’t have to be alone, for eternity.
Eventually, each of us will be alone. It’s just statistics. Infinite time, and eventually the improbable will happen. The narrative will continue to evolve into eventually being a narrative which produces the survival of one person, or one conscious entity of whatever kind it needs to be to survive for billions of years.
My guess is at that point, the narrative will have evolved into that entity being a god. Then that god will create a multitude of new people and try its best to let them be free.
Just thinking out loud here. This is all new to me.
So basically in order to not be alone, the eternally-surviving consciousness spawns new separate consciousnesses. And the cycle repeats. Crazy.
Being diagnosed with extreme MTHFR, getting on a high dose of methylfolate and the correct meds.
Went from having daily, very heavy brain fog to zero. Thought for years I was just lazy and stupid. Doing simple things left me more mentally exhausted than others, and I just thought everyone felt like I did, but were better at pushing through it.
Turns out, not lazy or stupid at all.
Went back to school, got my AA and into a field desperate to hire. Doubled my salary.
No idea what MTHFR is, but first thing I thought of was “Motherfucker” and thought that was a funny thing to be diagnosed as. Congrats on getting help with whatever it actually is.
Yeah, they actually call it The Motherfucker Gene, so everyone else had the same thought, lol.
It actually stands for methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase, which is the enzyme that metabolizes folic acid into methylfolate. Most people have a bit of an issue with it, but mine is like 80% defunct. For example, taking extra folic acid supplements while pregnant would do almost nothing for the baby, because my body just won’t metabolize it. I have to take high doses of methylfolate instead to get the same benefits.
And thank you you! It really has been life-changing!
Bought a house for $18,000 during the mid 90’s in a run down neighborhood. Now the neighborhood is the most desirable in an urban city. After the 2007 real estate crash I was able to move to suburbs and I rent out my original house. It was more luck than anything plus a willingness to live in a rough part of town. I’m always playing a game in my head now. What neighborhood is next?
Well, I can’t kill myself until my cat dies because he doesn’t like other people and I don’t want him to have a sad life. Some people would consider that a good thing.
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