Either by choice or sheer luck. What is something that has happened to you that made your life actively better?
(So far) For me it has been me finally able to move out of my parents home.
Escaped religion.
Same, what a challenging but worthwhile journey.
Growing up in the clutches of devout religious thinking had such a profoundly negative impact on my mental health and view of the world in general that relinquishing it was one of the most refreshing and revitalizing experiences of my life.
Religion teaches you that this life is only important as a stepping stone to eternity, that leads to some incredibly short sighted and unhealthy living. Accepting that this life is actually important for its own sake instead of as some sort of twisted game from some random deity helped me begin to make choices that objectively did more for humanity and myself.
Religion teaches you that evidence and logic are not routes to “truth” but feelings, faith, and obedience are. Untangling that mess was tough, as a result for decades now every single thought and belief has been in question. The pain of being so wrong but so convinced I was right has led to a bit of an issue allowing myself to believe anything
Religion is one of the largest stains on our species. I don’t blame religious people, they’re victims, but by george do I hate that we have perpetuated such tragic belief systems.
Learned a trade that I love as a career (industrial electrician), fell in love with my boyfriend, bought and renovated a home from 1890 together, plan to get married eventually!
Congrats!
My son was born healthy. Became a father I guess would be more “to me”…
Meeting my girlfriend!
And your love for hot dogs!
Huh?
I have a job I really love
Same. Well, kind of - I used to, until the company was bought up and corporate bullshit took over. I am in the process of drafting the paperwork for my next job with the people I used to work with, so I can once more enjoy my job.
Falling in love
Cliche but meeting my partner, girl has saved me from so many dumb decisions and she has no idea.
Met my partner who shares the same mental disorder, the only person I know who could teach me to cope and become a functional adult when I had almost lost all hope.
Wife & kids
Using the trade skills I acquired to pay for a computer science degree, which has secured me the best job I’ve ever had. Going to college later in life was absolutely a game changer.
Psychedelics, wife, kid, finding a fun job, realising my parents are kind of assholes and I wasn’t such a bad kid.
My daughter. Although she has a lot of issues and it has been a very hard road, she has made me a better person and a less angry person. She is definitely by far the best thing that ever happened to me. My biggest fear is outliving her.
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.
It’s funny, I joined the Marines, infantry, and came out much, much more progressive.
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?”
It’s funny, I joined the Marines, infantry, and came out much, much more progressive.
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.
I got a steam deck recently. I can’t decide if this is one of the best or one of the worst decisions I’ve ever made. I love it to death and I’ve been playing stuff with retrodeck almost non-stop since I got it, however, I’ve been playing stuff with retrodeck almost non-stop since I got it.
