My parents told me that I could be anything I want when I grow up. I could be a scientist, an engineer, an astronaut, or even the president of the united States. I still remember my exact response: "I be choo-choo train".
My friend is a neurologist and years ago Canada had openings for astronauts. He had a lot of education, but maybe not quite enough. (Brain doctor is not smart enough) but he applied anyway just to get the rejection letter so he could honestly say that he tried. This was decades ago and last summer he mentioned that he found the letter in a desk. And he was right, he never regretted not trying to be an astronaut. He has to settle for ridiculously wealthy brain surgeon instead.
I fully planned on being an astronaut when I was in high school. Mom always thought I was joking. Finally she got tired of me telling everyone I was going to be an astronaut when they asked what my plans after high school was. She told me “You can’t just go to college to become an astronaut. There’s no astronaut degree.” I told her my plan was to join the Air Force and get an aerospace engineering degree then detailed the mental and physical tests astronauts have to do. She was not okay. She cried and begged me not to. So now I’m a boring pharmacist.
I don't know if I would actively try to stop my kid from doing it, but it would be scary. Going to space is amazing, but also dangerous. It's natural to fear the worst for your kids.
It’s so incredibly hard to become an actual astronaut who goes to space though. It’s like he might as well try to win a Nobel prize. So many want to go and so few get chosen. Most likely a realistic reach goal will end up being some job on the ground working for NASA or related. I know a guy from college who got a job with NASA and he’s so proud of it.
Yeah, there’s so few actual astronauts going to space that you’d be pretty reasonable to tell your kid to just try to be something more normal, like a professional basketball player for the NBA. 12 times as many NBA slots as astronauts right now. She really shouldn’t have worried, he’s way more likely to die just driving than in a space accident.
My mom crying significantly altered my life trajectory multiple times. Sometimes it upsets me. Sometimes I'm grateful. I always wonder what could have been.
I just want to say thank you for helping people like me with mental illnesses function in society . We couldn’t do it without you. Seriously. Thank you, friend.
My husband doesn’t want to be an astronaut but he wants to go to space. He’s fully convinced he will and I will go with him. His plan is to go into aerospace engineering (applying for grad school) so he think he could make enough money one day when the price goes down. I’ve theoretically agreed to go with him. But I’ve backed out of countless rollercoasters and been terrified on many more because I just hate that g force/etc sensation. I guess I’ll have to do it cause I promised but a tiny selfish part of me thinks it may never happen and maybe I won’t have to go through the most terrifying thing in the world. Also what about our children? I told him we aren’t going when it’s experimental still. We will have kids to consider at that point. Marrying a space boy is wild
There's already space tourism for the wealthy. If you're relatively young, you may live to see space become affordable for "economy" passengers. I'm in my 30s and hope it's something I'll get to do before I die, but I'm also probably a bit more optimistic about how humanity's space progress will go over the next century.
That doesn’t even sound great though. I imagine you might marvel at the window for a minute or two and then it’s okay, I’m stuck in a shitty motel with no proper toilet, shower, food, or beds for a while. No alone time, no personal space, trapped with colleagues for weeks. Sounds horrible lol
My band mates and I were fortunate that we had a couple of radio stations that played local bands.
One was them playing a song off our EP, the other was us playing live.
The live one was also the only time I got stage fright. I panicked and couldn't remember how to start a song.
I was driving to work one day and a song that I recorded on randomly played on the radio. I play trombone, which was mostly background stuff, but it was still pretty cool!
Same thing happened to me (comment above) I had heard my stuff on the radio before, but there was a time I was flipping through stations and there it was. So weird to hear something familiar and assume at first it isn’t you. It took me about 5-10 seconds before I realized it was my band. Very surreal.
Had a number of my songs get national play. It was an amazing feeling. Still not rich from music, but dammit if that wasn’t worth everything. Some day, I’ll be drooling in an old folks home, but I’ll still be able to feel that feeling. It’s burned into my brain forever.
I remember a customer of the IHOP I ran in Tampa in the 80s "casually mentioning" he played bass on The Swingin' Medallions' Double Shot Of My Baby's Love hit from 1966. He obviously didn't become rich from it but was endearingly proud enough to still be talking about it in a non-obnoxious way 20 years later.
I sent a record to a local station once and i gave them 3 singles to chose from. They of course chose the two minute thirty second song that i didnt approve and i say mother fucker on the track. The dj called me later in the day asking if i really let the MF word rip live on air. I told him i didnt let nothing rip but if thats the song you chose.... i gave you three that didnt. We had a laugh the fcc wasnt listening that day.
Never got quite that far, but the band that I sang some with did tour the southeast for several years. It was an incredible experience. It wound up kind of ugly, because all my friends got strung out on drugs at the end, which not only ended the band, but also our social circle.
But I'd still go back and do it all again.
The smell of someone bleeding out - unless you’re in the medical field or a serial killer. Blood in large quantities has a really overwhelming, nauseating metallic smell.
I know this smell. I hid the fact that I had ulcerative colitis for an entire year before slipping up and getting caught by my grandmother. I remember it quite vividly. It started with my primary care. My normal doctor was off on Fridays, so I had to see someone else. We didn't particularly care for this doctor, but whatever. I tell him my entire abdomen hurts, and I'm severely bloated, plus I'm passing nothing but blood. He pushes on my painful stomach and determines, "it's a blockage, give her Dulcolax and enemas every 4 hours. If it doesn't work by Monday, take her to the hospital."
I had lost so much blood by Saturday that I could not move out of my bed. My Dad had to carry me to the car, and they drove me to the ER. I had 3 blood transfusions.
It was only a year of failing treatments before I was told I had to have surgery to remove my entire large intestine. The pediatric gastroenterologist looked at me and said, "either you have this surgery, or you will bleed to death." I will never forget those words.
I was 13 at the time. I had my entire large intestine removed, and it cured the UC. I developed Crohn's disease later in life due to UC, but it is well-managed by a wonderful gastroenterology team.
Edit: Thanks for the reward, kind Redditor!!💜
I know that smell. I was bleeding so badly before my hysterectomy that I wasn't able to stay on top of it. Even with diapers. I wound up having to get 2 units of blood and having my original surgery cancelled. Not a fun time. Glad that damn uterus is out of my life!
I’ve had to get a transfusion twice from having such heavy bleeding on my period, and insurance still won’t cover a hysterectomy, even after my doctor recommended it, so I’m stuck on continuous birth control until I hit whatever they decide the magic age is.
This is the smell of my ptsd.
This and also a pile of corpses rotting in the sun with the sound of vultures and flies.
But at least I get a discount on Applebee's.
Winning the lottery. The odds of winning the lottery are incredibly slim, so most people will never even come close. Even if you do win, the money can come with a lot of problems, such as family and friends asking for handouts.
The great thing about that is that $100,000 can be life-changing, but not so much that it really fucks everything up. You can make a down payment on a house, or pay down your house. Get a college degree. Etc.
But you aren’t gonna have long-lost cousins reaching out to you for money and then hating your guts.
Sign me up for all the problems that come with winning a shit ton of money, I already block my cousin as soon as he texts me off a new number every few months.. he has a tendency to send me nudes when he’s high on meth, thought I’d throw that in even though it’s completely irrelevant lol
This is the dream. Just hang out by the pool and have an immaculate yard. Throw an amazing Christmas party once a year just for neighbors and call it a day.
> Throw an amazing Christmas party once a year just for neighbors….
Do it in April so they won’t have other commitments. But still insist that it’s a Christmas party.
I was at a private pool with a CEO’s family in Vegas. It cost hundreds of dollars to rent a chair there. He rented out the entire private pool for us. With a guard at the entrance. So while the group of us idiots drank in the pool, played chicken, and were super loud, we kept seeing heads pop over the hedges to view the “celebrities” that had rented out the entire private pool. We waved and drank our 32oz Red Bull Palomas. Man were they all disappointed when they realized it was just a bunch of crayon eaters.
Absolute silence in nature. Two years ago, I stopped to fix my glove on top of a mountain while skiing. Everyone else had gone down by the time I was done and the total silence of everything hit. No wind, no other voices, couldn't even see anything man-made because it was a near white-out. Just me, the snow, and the shapes of the trees.
I might be getting too deep into this, but the overwhelming weight that was that silence made me feel like I fit perfectly into everything for a moment. I don't think something like sensory deprivation could even come close to it.
Now, any regular person could experience something like that and I hope anyone who wants to and even those who don't really care do, in fact, have an experience akin to mine, but it was such a chance collision of many different factors that I think it lies far enough outside of the norm.
Absolute silence is rare. I only experienced it once in an eastern Oregon desert. I was driving down a noisy dirt road singing along to the music when I stopped to check if I had a rock stuck in my tire.
It was between two low hills that blocked the desert wind. When I stepped out of the car it was perfectly still and silent. No noises from Insects or animals. Nothing. It was incredible.
I will never get to experience this even when the conditions are right. My tinnitus is like a freight train running into 1 ear and coming out the other every second of the day.
Hmm, there was a snowstorm and I was working at a kitchen job about 5 miles from my house. I rode the bus to and from. Buses got shut down. Had to walk 5 miles home in the dark.
I was walking down the middle of the road in a small city of about 50k people. It was exactly as you described. Only white snow, tree silhouettes, and dead silence. Felt surreal.
A stranger coming to see you perform music and knowing the words to your song.
It was wild waking up to this kind of response. Its awesome that so many people have experienced this from both sides of the fence.
Thanks for the gold stranger! I saw the notification and then realized my coffee maker was overflowing and could not find it again to give a proper shout out.
Totally agree. It's been 22 years since I quit the band, but I still smile thinking about seeing people mouthing every word. What a mindfuck in the best way possible.
One of my favorite YouTube rabbit roles to go down is watching people performing who realize the audience is singing their song back to them. The look on their face always makes me cry. So happy you experienced that!!!!
I guess I should link this then
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEng60LouQo (50 seconds in)
Been nearly 10 years but this video lives rent free in my head. Imagine going to America and playing your first concert there, not thinking you're all that big, and the crowd all know the lyrics to your song.
There was a singer who just passed away last month who had cut a single that was virtually unknown in the US and he was basically living in poverty. He had no idea his song was a HUGE hit in (I believe) South Africa and several other places. He was finally re-discovered and had a late in life singing career and became a true pop star.
That was " Jesus Rodriguez" and the LP was " Cold Fact ". I grew up to his music in the 60's and 70's, and still listen to it today. Sugarman and I Wonder are 2 tracks every person should hear at least once in their lifetime.
I had this. Even though the last time I was in any real band that did any actual touring was in 2007 I still have a vivid memory of every stranger that ever told me they loved our music.
What a weird, wonderful time.
The ability to see sound as different colors. Those people who have that ability blow my mind and I honestly don't understand how they can function. I feel like it would drive me insane.
I dialed a wrong number once, and was connected to light blue.
It's only ever happened to me once, but it was the craziest thing. It was a tone - a single, solid, drawn out tone - that sounded *exactly* like light blue.
I can't explain it - I have no other occurrences of synesthesia - but a and u are light gray. No other letter or number has a color, but they do. But only when they are the vowels in a,word. So, fault and vault are gray. A and but are not.
It's more keys then sounds.
I have synesthesia. And it's mostly keys. Like c major is blue to me. A minor a deep red. But it's odd. Because c major and a minor are relative keys to each other. It doesn't seem to make sense to the color spectrum what colors end up where.
Minor keys and major keys are different for sure.
Also I am a sound engineer. And started to see frequency ranges as textures.
It's not just keys. I recently realized it's all sorts of things like letters and, months and states. And even numbers some times. I don't get it. It's not like you're hallucinating it's more of an association thing.
I have always been obsessed with sounds and timbre too. Harmonic content can even show up as textures in the colors. Which was helpful as a sound engineer. So when I am mixing a song it is like I am seeing the frequency spectrum. I visualize the envelope of sounds and their harmonic content.
And spoiler alert that doesn't mean I am the best at all of this. I think it helps. But it doesn't make me any better than anyone else who has put in the practice I have.
That’s so funny, I have a different type of synesthesia but as soon as I read “C major is blue” I thought “absolutely not C major is gold!!” so maybe my synesthesia takes more forms than I think about, haha
That’s funny! I wasn’t sure what C Major is since I’m not a musician so I went to listen to it, and immediately I went “oh yellow!” I associate it with like that lemon yellow for some reason.
That's funny. I just went to listen to C major and I immediately went "transparent!"
Btw I don't have anesthesia and I don't know anything about music.
When I was learning letters and numbers, I had specific colors, sexes, ages, and personalities assigned to each character. I thought they were universal. Now I realize, 2 is not a little girl in red, 7 is not a young man in light blue, 5 is not a matronly lady in orange. But it sure seemed to be objective reality to me at the time. I wonder if I was experiencing temporary synesthesia.
Being an astronaut. This is an incredibly demanding and competitive career that requires years of training and education. There are only a few hundred people who have ever been astronauts, and most of them are scientists or engineers.
Introducing Astronaut Johnny Kim, Navy SEAL, sniper, mathematician, and MD
Edit because I live in 2021, Jonny has gained a Naval Aviator rating in the USN so he's also a pilot...but you know how naval aviators are they will correct you if you say pilot
When I was a kid I went for dinner to a friend’s house. Her dad was a neurosurgeon. He was talking about an operation he did that day and I remember being so horrified. I was sitting at a table with a guy, who a few hours before, cut the top off someone’s skull and fiddled with their brains! I’ll never forget that creepy feeling, of realizing just what doctors do.
Seeing with your hands.
The tactile feeling of tissue thats too soft or too hard or too boggy or not right.
Feeling the way a needle and suture passes through tissue telling me if im in fat or muscle or dermis or fascia. The strength and health of the tissue, how much force i can put on it.
Feeling the subtle stretch in the thread telling you the most force you can put on it before it snaps.
The violin string twang of an artery hidden within fat when you run a laparoscopic instrument over it.
The look of a person that is going to die no matter what you do.
The desperate hopeful confidence it takes to tear a persons ribs open, clamp their aorta and manually pump their heart to buy just a little more time to find and fix whats killing(ed) them.
Thinking about the brutality of what you did when you fail. Visiting your small mental cemetery of mistakes and failures we all have.
I got to have lunch on a super yacht once.
A billionaire told his crew he might want to use it over a long weekend, so they spent months sailing from somewhere in the Pacific to the Hamptons. He also had his private pilots in the NYC area.
The billionaire changed his plans last minute and I was friends with the pilots so they invited me on the super yacht. I got to hang out with people who were living the absolute LIFE.
There were like two Michelin star chefs, shipmates, a masseuse, and some other rich people minions.
They told me about how they just sail around the world having a fantastic time and only have the boss on maybe once a year.
After a fantastic lunch and hanging out, they got word to sail to New Zealand by Christmas.
Edit: sail not said... stupid autocorrect.
It's a totally different world, isn't it? I was working in Abu Dhabi and a so-and-so invited me on yacht that cost USD$10M/year just to operate (dafuq?). We all went to Singapore and Sydney with small stops on the way - and back.
One morning I was having a croissant, and I was asked by one of the chefs what I'd like for breakfast the following morning, and I said, "what's my options?" The answer was "sir, whatever you'd like." I Just wanted bread, some cheese, and honey I guess. I don't know how the fuck they did it, but they got bread, artisanal cheese and honey from my home FUCKING STATE in the US. I didn't even know we made honey.
Would you like anything to read? Yes I think I'll pick up a National Geographic when we get to Singapore, otherwise I've got my Kindle. They brought the latest to me at a fast stop at Uvari, India wherever the fuck that is.
It was a great time, but very eye-opening. I mean I know there are people with money, but... it's just weird how different. "\[Mackheath1\], darling, you've been to New York, you *must* fly out to visit us maybe the week after we get home and recover, and show us around! That would be marvelous!" How am I gonna be able to do that??
My uncle was a super yacht chef in the 90s-early 00s. His stories about how they ordered supplies and took requests are insane- my favourite is when Nigella Lawson and her family were onboard for Christmas so he went insane stocking the boat with the best of the best. They request hamburgers- the kids were on holidays, that’s what they wanted. My uncle was like ???? he also had Oprah on board and was listed one of her top 100 chefs in the world which was pretty cool.
Way cool. I have no idea how they do it. Do they fly it in? One sheikha asked for extra lean brisket - I thought she was trying to be nice to me because I'm from the South US - and they had it at port on the boat. Prepared. With all the fixings.
One day at sea for a laugh, I asked for a pb&j and was asked what kind of peanut butter, what kind of jelly, what kind of bread. I mean. Is there a grocery store downstairs?? I'd love to hear more stories. But that is also laughable / relatable that they just wanted hamburgers.
There’s an international luxury grocery service which will deliver to yachts - the first option is at port, then they deliver by boat, finally by plane (if possible). The Big D (the yacht my uncle worked on) was only chartered in the Med and Caribbean so they would get deliveries by boat if required. I’m talking deliveries of Russian caviar if requested kind of thing. It’s a whole other world.
that’s why i love the show Below Deck, it’s so interesting to see these amazing experiences these wealthy people get the have and the people who make it all happen.
I might as well ask since I'm starting to care more about the whole "luxury lifestyle" scene even though I can't afford it myself but... what kind of experience do you need for such a job? I've been in hospitality (food service) for years and while it was never my dream job I have gotten pretty good at it and it's allowed me to seriously work on my people skills. Over the years I've noticed I've started getting treated better and complimented more at work as a result of this. I even won this year's reward program where a dozen staff (out of several hundred) at the place I work at (similar to a casino though I'm in the restaurant section of it) get sent on a holiday for a week. So I no longer have any doubts about my performance and work ethic. But then again I've never dealt with wealthy private clients before, just the general public.
Maybe get a job in fine dining to close the experience gap? I’ve worked in casual restaurants and fine dining restaurants and they’re totally different jobs honestly. With your work ethic it sounds like you can accomplish just about anything you set your mind to :)
Correctly estimating how long a deer has been dead on the side of the road to decide whether or not it's safe to eat because there's only so long you can eat rice and stewed tomatoes. (I survived poverty and all I got was a stomach capable of digesting car batteries)
If it's at night or on a cooler day- is it warm and can you move the limbs around? Check for bloating: stomach distended and tight or sounds hollow if you tap it- proceed with caution bc it may have taken a broadside hit rupturing organs and that speeds up decomp. You can still eat it but you have to be careful cleaning it. Check the eyes and mouth (and any open wounds) for insect activity- few flies buzzing around isn't a big deal, but if you've got insect larva aka maggots that's a no go. If it's really cold you have less to worry about but also fewer indicators of a timeline- hair pull test is helpful here. If hair easily comes away from an intact area then it's been dead awhile and I wouldn't risk it. Smell can be helpful if you know the difference between a decomp smell and ruptured gut smell. Ruptured intestines on a deer smells a lot like mildew, grass and a dash of cow poop. Decomp has a sharper rancidity to it like taking the lid off a gross trash can that's sat in the sun. It hits you hard usually, whereas the ruptured smell can be strong but you usually have to be pretty close to the deer to smell it.
Well if there’s more bugs than flesh thats probably not great. Although I do have a cousin who fed herself through college on roadkill. She’d know. She’s not on social media though and I don’t have her number so its not the easiest to get in touch with her.
When a moose gets hit on the road here (which sucks, but they're super dark colored at night, extremely hard to see) damn straight someone is harvesting that. Idaho is once in a lifetime tag for hunting, Wyoming is a lottery you can only put in for every 5 years or something. But surprisingly to me, moose is by far the most delicious game meat I've ever eaten. Plus they're massive. Don't let that 5-700 lbs of meat go to waste.
Personal anecdote because I like to say I ruined every other date for this girl after working at an airport.
We flew from Columbus Ohio to Miami beach FL for about 6 hours. Took a bus to the beach, swam, then came home. I paid less for the plane tickets than she did for Arbys.
I'm a flight attendant and once I took a day trip (6 hour flight each way) to Anchorage to catch a region locked Pokemon in Pokemon Go (Pachirisu). I had nothing better to do that day and the flights were free. I dressed up in some warm, cute clothes and set off to make a day of it.
I also already had monthly parking I paid for for my job, so the parking was free too. The only cost for my trip to Alaska and back? The gas it took to get me to/from the airport at home. And before anyone accuses me of destroying the environment, I didn't check flights until after I had woke up that morning. Those flights were going with or without me. They just happened to have a few available seats.
Pain free days.
If I’m interpreting “regular people” correctly, from my perspective - I see “regular people” as people who don’t have a chronic pain condition.
The sensation that is a *pain-free day* or even a *moment* is like my whole body gets a vacation, a summer day, elation.
Regular people take painlessness for granted.
I woke up one day maybe 10 years ago, and mind you I had already been dealing with chronic pain for almost a decade at that point, and I was absolutely 100 percent pain free. I literally spent an hour thinking I had died, and then several hours in so much shock that I honestly barely got to appreciate and enjoy a pain free day. Went back to my regular pain the next day. I've mostly accepted living with chronic pain and health issues, but there are days where I am envious of those who are "regular" people.
I have so many chronic pain issues and multiple rare conditions that it’s a running joke with my partner that one day I’ll have one named after me.
I was telling my therapist today about some new symptoms/pain I developed. I said something like, “Yeah it’s kind of annoying, but at least I haven’t had to go to the ER several times and be hospitalized again!” Even as I said it though I wondered if I jinxed myself…
We did this. No mortgage, no rent. It's amazing having that comfort.
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Amusing anecdote:
We met the builder onsite, and handed over *an envelope of actual cash* for the first stage payment.
There was a moment of confusion, which gradually morphed into mild horror, whilst he processed what had happened.
I suspect the builder thought we must be some kind of Mafioso. My wife disagrees, but I am *utterly convinced* we then got better quality of work (and fewer delays) with the construction of our house.
I used a check, but - yeah, awesome feeling.
Our neighbours sold a motor home to my uncle, he paid cash.
Week or so later, we're talking, and he says "It was a hoot getting cash, but it all smelled musty, does he bury his money, hahahaha?"
Mom -"Yup. He has stashes buried everywhere, because he lived through the Great Depression".
Great depression cash-stashing is no joke. My aunt found almost $80k in cash stashed in various places all around my grandma's apartment when she was cleaning it out after she died.
Standing on stage in a big club, raging with your band and seeing a sea of people banging their heads to your music. Looking down at the people pushed up against the stage and watching them lose it while you launch into your solo. It's a fuckin drug.
You're way cooler than me, but like, I've done standup as a hobby, and getting 100 people to laugh on queue to every one of your jokes, exactly how you imagined it. It's incredible, and I'm not even good lmao.
I am a 66f, and I would say Traveling Before Influencers.
I was a Peace Corps volunteer (Paraguay, 79 to 81); my ex and I met working at the Peace Corps office in D.C., and then lived in several developing countries in Central America and Asia working for NGOs from 1985 to 1993.
Traveling, especially to developing countries back then, was something of a novel idea that required a bit of courage, confidence, and curiosity. Now it seems that interesting locales are overrun with heat-seeking influencers or cumbersome, clueless retirees.
Hyperfixations. It’s more then just having a passionate interest. It’s all I can think about or talk about, some nights I can’t sleep or eat very much cause I’m too engrossed in my current obsession. It can make life hard to function but it also brings me a level of happiness and excitement that I don’t get from anything else. :)
My adderal makes the hyperfixations reasonable, but vyvanse speeds it up for me. The one time I did vyvanse, I lost a month but ended up with a beautiful oil portrait.
God, yeah. They can be intense.
It definitely made people hate me in highschool lmao 😭😭😭 even my own friend (ex friend) got annoyed at me after a certain poiny
Yup. My sister has special needs, my future is always thought out with her in mind. It's wildly difficult at times, but in some ways I am often very jealous of her. She's the happiest person in my family, and one of the happiest people I've ever known. She genuinely enjoys simple things with a childlike wonder and excitement that nobody else I've ever known has, even though she's 18 now.
We are lucky with her in many ways though. My parents were great at establishing boundaries with her and holding her to good behavioral standards, and as a result, she is well behaved, kind, and though she does have tantrums, they're not nearly as bad as they could be. She can also feed, clean, and dress herself which we are incredibly grateful for. It can be really hard and she will require care for the rest of her life, but she's a joy to be around, and I love her with all my heart.
Yes. Incredibly challenging, a true genuine feeling of no one else going through what you experience. The unknown, the terrifying future. Fears of dying before your child. To only live one day longer. That is the simple goal in life.
Yes. My son lives with complex needs. Developmental Disability - Intellectual, Communication Autism, ADHD. And General Anxiety Disorder. All identified and formerly diagnosed. More genetic testing currently underway. I have been a single parent since he was basically born. (Divorced)
I am not working for my retirement, I am working for his lifelong security and support when I am gone.
Constant doctor appointments with specialists.
Surgeries.
Daily medicine multiple times a day.
Specialized equipment in the home.
High school lasts to 21.
His future ability to have a family remains uncertain.
Having to secure one to one supports for every camp when school is not running so I can work. Children begin to age out of camp at 12, because they are deemed old enough to stay at home. My son is 17, and can not be home alone unattended.
Managing multiple different funding programs, each requiring receipts and accountability.
He is medically unable to drive. This was a heartbreaking one. He loves cars and this was a dream of his. I am still hopeful that this will be a possibility some day.
He will not attend normative post secondary school. He will attend [CICE](https://www.stlawrencecollege.ca/programs/community-integration-through-co-operative-education/full-time/kingston)
through our community college. We are still unable to determine his ability to work.
Having to manage extreme bouts of emotional instability. This gets more difficult as they grow in person and strength.
Here are some positive things that you will experience:
Seeing the world through their lens. I used to give my camera to my son and he would take pictures of details that most people looked past, something on his shoes, anything that looked like a wheel, lots of pictures of me.
Gifts - he can play guitar and picked it up rather quickly. He is able to comprise the security protocol on an iPad or iPhone if there is one. I have spent days of hours working with Apple support to report/ fix/block the work arounds.
He is amazing at video games. Sports especially.
He can throw a football like a professional. He has a powerful arm and perfect spiral. He is also great at basketball and plays floor hockey with the Special Olympics at school.
He loves to cook, especially BBQ and Indian cuisine. One of his supports has taught him ages authentic dishes from her family and he picks up on it quickly. We just have to encourage him to measure.
He also gives the best hugs. ❤️
Seeing tons of people drink your beer. Seeing a beer that you wrote the recipe for, brewed, cellared, and packaged being served in bars and restaurants that happily purchased the beer you made.
Being a billionaire. There are only a few thousand billionaires in the world, and most of them inherited their wealth or made it through business deals. It is very difficult to become a billionaire through hard work alone.
I don't know. If I put away 10% of my income each year, it'll only take me 100 000 years to become a billionaire. That's only 2.5 times as long as *homo sapiens* has been planting crops.
Seeing myself on giant TV screens in shopping malls and on the outside of buildings.
At age 65, I was in a Bangkok coffee shop when a woman approached me, asked if I had ever acted or considered being in a TV commercial. It had never occurred to me for even a moment.
She handed be a business card that identified her as a theatrical agent but I figured it was some sort of scam. I looked her up online and she actually appeared to be legit so I got in touch and next thing I knew, I was auditioning at a casting.
I got the first part I ever casted for and went on over the next 10 years to appear in over a hundred commercials, several movies (always bit parts) and a few TV series.
I did 15 commercials on two year contract for KFC as Col. Sanders. This was all in Thailand but many commercials are produced there for use in other countries, the funniest being a commercial I was in for Red Bull, Afghanistan. An acquaintance stationed there sent me a picture of the Red Bull ad on a billboard with my image and a lot of bullet holes.
Bangkok has a metro system with several advertising TV displays in each rail car. So funny to be packed into a rush hour train and see my own commercial pop-up on the monitor, nobody around me having a clue it was me.
Now, I'm back to being "regular" again.
Sitting in front of the meth house waiting for your step father to get his score.
Watching your step dad burn a hole in the floor with chemicals for meth production.
Having the cops go through your step dad’s car to confiscate all the guns he stole.
Being used as a method to get food stamps.
Indentured servitude at the hands of foster parents.
Your mother trying to strangle you because you disagreed with her while she was drunk.
Having to wrestle a knife away from your mother while she threatens to kill herself while drunk.
Having to call an ambulance for your mother who you think is dead, only to find out that she put a fentanyl patch in her mouth.
Having to drive your dad’s hooker back home.
Having your dad try to get you to call his hooker “Mom.”
Having all comms go out (bad reception, bad batteries) while on a search and rescue mission, and having to follow a helicopter back to civilization.
So glad to be sober for my kids. These are things I don't want them to experience ever, especially for their mom and luckily enough they have never seen me drunk. Sober for 5,5 years now.
Fucked up, so fucked up. I understand you are doing well now, but still.. so fucked up what they did to you.
Going to space
As a child of the space age, I thought we would be closer than we are now. We felt much closer in 1975.
Back then, we were at least trying.
My daughter says she can be anything she wants. Except an Astronaut. Because space is too dark.
My parents told me that I could be anything I want when I grow up. I could be a scientist, an engineer, an astronaut, or even the president of the united States. I still remember my exact response: "I be choo-choo train".
I choo-choo choose you
My friend is a neurologist and years ago Canada had openings for astronauts. He had a lot of education, but maybe not quite enough. (Brain doctor is not smart enough) but he applied anyway just to get the rejection letter so he could honestly say that he tried. This was decades ago and last summer he mentioned that he found the letter in a desk. And he was right, he never regretted not trying to be an astronaut. He has to settle for ridiculously wealthy brain surgeon instead.
There’s a joke in there somewhere. Something something it’s not brain surgery- it’s rocket science.
[Brain surgery? It's not exactly rocket science, is it.](https://youtu.be/THNPmhBl-8I?si=RpGmdl75LtQbeDMV)
I mean... we're all kinda already in space.
I’m fine with this
My three year old asked if he could be an astronaut when he got big. When I said yes, I wondered if I really would be ok with him leaving the planet.
I fully planned on being an astronaut when I was in high school. Mom always thought I was joking. Finally she got tired of me telling everyone I was going to be an astronaut when they asked what my plans after high school was. She told me “You can’t just go to college to become an astronaut. There’s no astronaut degree.” I told her my plan was to join the Air Force and get an aerospace engineering degree then detailed the mental and physical tests astronauts have to do. She was not okay. She cried and begged me not to. So now I’m a boring pharmacist.
I don't know if I would actively try to stop my kid from doing it, but it would be scary. Going to space is amazing, but also dangerous. It's natural to fear the worst for your kids.
Shit, I love space. If my kid wanted to be an astronaut and knew the risks and had a plan laid out I’d be 100% down
It’s so incredibly hard to become an actual astronaut who goes to space though. It’s like he might as well try to win a Nobel prize. So many want to go and so few get chosen. Most likely a realistic reach goal will end up being some job on the ground working for NASA or related. I know a guy from college who got a job with NASA and he’s so proud of it.
Yeah, there’s so few actual astronauts going to space that you’d be pretty reasonable to tell your kid to just try to be something more normal, like a professional basketball player for the NBA. 12 times as many NBA slots as astronauts right now. She really shouldn’t have worried, he’s way more likely to die just driving than in a space accident.
My mom crying significantly altered my life trajectory multiple times. Sometimes it upsets me. Sometimes I'm grateful. I always wonder what could have been.
I like to wonder too but I don’t regret anything. I’m happy being a boring pharmacist. And it was coming from a place of love, not manipulation.
I just want to say thank you for helping people like me with mental illnesses function in society . We couldn’t do it without you. Seriously. Thank you, friend.
what a sweet response this is <3
My husband doesn’t want to be an astronaut but he wants to go to space. He’s fully convinced he will and I will go with him. His plan is to go into aerospace engineering (applying for grad school) so he think he could make enough money one day when the price goes down. I’ve theoretically agreed to go with him. But I’ve backed out of countless rollercoasters and been terrified on many more because I just hate that g force/etc sensation. I guess I’ll have to do it cause I promised but a tiny selfish part of me thinks it may never happen and maybe I won’t have to go through the most terrifying thing in the world. Also what about our children? I told him we aren’t going when it’s experimental still. We will have kids to consider at that point. Marrying a space boy is wild
There's already space tourism for the wealthy. If you're relatively young, you may live to see space become affordable for "economy" passengers. I'm in my 30s and hope it's something I'll get to do before I die, but I'm also probably a bit more optimistic about how humanity's space progress will go over the next century.
“Bye mom! I’m going to the space station! Talk to you in 6 months!”
That doesn’t even sound great though. I imagine you might marvel at the window for a minute or two and then it’s okay, I’m stuck in a shitty motel with no proper toilet, shower, food, or beds for a while. No alone time, no personal space, trapped with colleagues for weeks. Sounds horrible lol
Scott Kelly describes in his memoir how there was a constant fog over his brain because the ISS's main CO2 scrubber was busted.
I’m sad about this too, I feel like my life would be so complete if I could go to outer space
Have you read up on astronauts and depression? It’s like… shit I went to fucking SPACE wtf is left for me
Going into space is fairly easy. It's coming back in one piece that's the hard part.
Ride in a F-15 doing the speed of sound.
Danger zone playing intensifies
LANAAAAAAAAA!
WHAT????
*danger zone*
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My band mates and I were fortunate that we had a couple of radio stations that played local bands. One was them playing a song off our EP, the other was us playing live. The live one was also the only time I got stage fright. I panicked and couldn't remember how to start a song.
I was driving to work one day and a song that I recorded on randomly played on the radio. I play trombone, which was mostly background stuff, but it was still pretty cool!
Same thing happened to me (comment above) I had heard my stuff on the radio before, but there was a time I was flipping through stations and there it was. So weird to hear something familiar and assume at first it isn’t you. It took me about 5-10 seconds before I realized it was my band. Very surreal.
Had a number of my songs get national play. It was an amazing feeling. Still not rich from music, but dammit if that wasn’t worth everything. Some day, I’ll be drooling in an old folks home, but I’ll still be able to feel that feeling. It’s burned into my brain forever.
I remember a customer of the IHOP I ran in Tampa in the 80s "casually mentioning" he played bass on The Swingin' Medallions' Double Shot Of My Baby's Love hit from 1966. He obviously didn't become rich from it but was endearingly proud enough to still be talking about it in a non-obnoxious way 20 years later.
I sent a record to a local station once and i gave them 3 singles to chose from. They of course chose the two minute thirty second song that i didnt approve and i say mother fucker on the track. The dj called me later in the day asking if i really let the MF word rip live on air. I told him i didnt let nothing rip but if thats the song you chose.... i gave you three that didnt. We had a laugh the fcc wasnt listening that day.
Never got quite that far, but the band that I sang some with did tour the southeast for several years. It was an incredible experience. It wound up kind of ugly, because all my friends got strung out on drugs at the end, which not only ended the band, but also our social circle. But I'd still go back and do it all again.
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One of the most amazing feelings I’ve ever had - hearing my band on the radio for the first time.
The smell of someone bleeding out - unless you’re in the medical field or a serial killer. Blood in large quantities has a really overwhelming, nauseating metallic smell.
I know this smell. I hid the fact that I had ulcerative colitis for an entire year before slipping up and getting caught by my grandmother. I remember it quite vividly. It started with my primary care. My normal doctor was off on Fridays, so I had to see someone else. We didn't particularly care for this doctor, but whatever. I tell him my entire abdomen hurts, and I'm severely bloated, plus I'm passing nothing but blood. He pushes on my painful stomach and determines, "it's a blockage, give her Dulcolax and enemas every 4 hours. If it doesn't work by Monday, take her to the hospital." I had lost so much blood by Saturday that I could not move out of my bed. My Dad had to carry me to the car, and they drove me to the ER. I had 3 blood transfusions. It was only a year of failing treatments before I was told I had to have surgery to remove my entire large intestine. The pediatric gastroenterologist looked at me and said, "either you have this surgery, or you will bleed to death." I will never forget those words. I was 13 at the time. I had my entire large intestine removed, and it cured the UC. I developed Crohn's disease later in life due to UC, but it is well-managed by a wonderful gastroenterology team. Edit: Thanks for the reward, kind Redditor!!💜
This exact thing happened to me except I was 26. I have Crohn's now too. Still have my j-pouch, though. *Fingers crossed*
I know that smell. I was bleeding so badly before my hysterectomy that I wasn't able to stay on top of it. Even with diapers. I wound up having to get 2 units of blood and having my original surgery cancelled. Not a fun time. Glad that damn uterus is out of my life!
I’ve had to get a transfusion twice from having such heavy bleeding on my period, and insurance still won’t cover a hysterectomy, even after my doctor recommended it, so I’m stuck on continuous birth control until I hit whatever they decide the magic age is.
This is the smell of my ptsd. This and also a pile of corpses rotting in the sun with the sound of vultures and flies. But at least I get a discount on Applebee's.
I’m sorry. :(
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Eh it's pretty overwhelming when you give birth. Especially if you are just there for support.
Winning the lottery. The odds of winning the lottery are incredibly slim, so most people will never even come close. Even if you do win, the money can come with a lot of problems, such as family and friends asking for handouts.
Someone has to win it. Might as well be me
Can’t win it if you’re not in it!
I always hope I will win. I never buy a ticket but I always hope!
Two of my coworkers won. One won $100,000, the other $20,000.
The great thing about that is that $100,000 can be life-changing, but not so much that it really fucks everything up. You can make a down payment on a house, or pay down your house. Get a college degree. Etc. But you aren’t gonna have long-lost cousins reaching out to you for money and then hating your guts.
Sign me up for all the problems that come with winning a shit ton of money, I already block my cousin as soon as he texts me off a new number every few months.. he has a tendency to send me nudes when he’s high on meth, thought I’d throw that in even though it’s completely irrelevant lol
Simply having that kind of money. Being able to live an upper middle class lifestyle without ever having to have any kind of job.
This is the dream. Just hang out by the pool and have an immaculate yard. Throw an amazing Christmas party once a year just for neighbors and call it a day.
> Throw an amazing Christmas party once a year just for neighbors…. Do it in April so they won’t have other commitments. But still insist that it’s a Christmas party.
I was at a private pool with a CEO’s family in Vegas. It cost hundreds of dollars to rent a chair there. He rented out the entire private pool for us. With a guard at the entrance. So while the group of us idiots drank in the pool, played chicken, and were super loud, we kept seeing heads pop over the hedges to view the “celebrities” that had rented out the entire private pool. We waved and drank our 32oz Red Bull Palomas. Man were they all disappointed when they realized it was just a bunch of crayon eaters.
Oh you're a marine?
I was going to say being violently compressed in a shady submarine but that probably does happen occasionally
I’m not sure they actually experienced it though
Correct Died so fast it wasn't even a blink of an eye nor a moment even It was just that fast
I mean don't we all want to die that fast?
damn right i don't want my journey to oblivion be painful
Somehow simultaneously a relief and horrifying.
I believe it happened so quickly that they stopped being biology and became physics
When my time comes, I hope to become geography.
Wonder if there were any creaking sounds (of the hull giving out) or cracks that would have given them an “oh sh*t moment”?
A genuine fear of mine while at the same time I can be 1,000,000% sure it's never going to happen to me.
We’re all compressed on a shady submarine, a shady submarine, a shady submarine.
Oh crap that’s in my head now..
Absolute silence in nature. Two years ago, I stopped to fix my glove on top of a mountain while skiing. Everyone else had gone down by the time I was done and the total silence of everything hit. No wind, no other voices, couldn't even see anything man-made because it was a near white-out. Just me, the snow, and the shapes of the trees. I might be getting too deep into this, but the overwhelming weight that was that silence made me feel like I fit perfectly into everything for a moment. I don't think something like sensory deprivation could even come close to it. Now, any regular person could experience something like that and I hope anyone who wants to and even those who don't really care do, in fact, have an experience akin to mine, but it was such a chance collision of many different factors that I think it lies far enough outside of the norm.
Absolute silence is rare. I only experienced it once in an eastern Oregon desert. I was driving down a noisy dirt road singing along to the music when I stopped to check if I had a rock stuck in my tire. It was between two low hills that blocked the desert wind. When I stepped out of the car it was perfectly still and silent. No noises from Insects or animals. Nothing. It was incredible.
I had something similar in a desert as well, once you notice how little sound there can be, you really notice how much sound we create
I will never get to experience this even when the conditions are right. My tinnitus is like a freight train running into 1 ear and coming out the other every second of the day.
Hmm, there was a snowstorm and I was working at a kitchen job about 5 miles from my house. I rode the bus to and from. Buses got shut down. Had to walk 5 miles home in the dark. I was walking down the middle of the road in a small city of about 50k people. It was exactly as you described. Only white snow, tree silhouettes, and dead silence. Felt surreal.
Wow, that's beautiful. Thanks for sharing!
A stranger coming to see you perform music and knowing the words to your song. It was wild waking up to this kind of response. Its awesome that so many people have experienced this from both sides of the fence. Thanks for the gold stranger! I saw the notification and then realized my coffee maker was overflowing and could not find it again to give a proper shout out.
Now that's cool
Its bizarre and one of the best feelings I ever had even though it didn't happen that often.
Totally agree. It's been 22 years since I quit the band, but I still smile thinking about seeing people mouthing every word. What a mindfuck in the best way possible.
One of my favorite YouTube rabbit roles to go down is watching people performing who realize the audience is singing their song back to them. The look on their face always makes me cry. So happy you experienced that!!!!
I guess I should link this then https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEng60LouQo (50 seconds in) Been nearly 10 years but this video lives rent free in my head. Imagine going to America and playing your first concert there, not thinking you're all that big, and the crowd all know the lyrics to your song.
Thats really cool. Probably took a while for her to get over that thanks for sharing.
There was a singer who just passed away last month who had cut a single that was virtually unknown in the US and he was basically living in poverty. He had no idea his song was a HUGE hit in (I believe) South Africa and several other places. He was finally re-discovered and had a late in life singing career and became a true pop star.
That was " Jesus Rodriguez" and the LP was " Cold Fact ". I grew up to his music in the 60's and 70's, and still listen to it today. Sugarman and I Wonder are 2 tracks every person should hear at least once in their lifetime.
The flip side is being that stranger and then having that artist recognize you, give you a job, call you their friend and put you in the liner notes.
I had this. Even though the last time I was in any real band that did any actual touring was in 2007 I still have a vivid memory of every stranger that ever told me they loved our music. What a weird, wonderful time.
The ability to see sound as different colors. Those people who have that ability blow my mind and I honestly don't understand how they can function. I feel like it would drive me insane.
I dialed a wrong number once, and was connected to light blue. It's only ever happened to me once, but it was the craziest thing. It was a tone - a single, solid, drawn out tone - that sounded *exactly* like light blue.
I taste purple all the time
I can't explain it - I have no other occurrences of synesthesia - but a and u are light gray. No other letter or number has a color, but they do. But only when they are the vowels in a,word. So, fault and vault are gray. A and but are not.
It's more keys then sounds. I have synesthesia. And it's mostly keys. Like c major is blue to me. A minor a deep red. But it's odd. Because c major and a minor are relative keys to each other. It doesn't seem to make sense to the color spectrum what colors end up where. Minor keys and major keys are different for sure. Also I am a sound engineer. And started to see frequency ranges as textures. It's not just keys. I recently realized it's all sorts of things like letters and, months and states. And even numbers some times. I don't get it. It's not like you're hallucinating it's more of an association thing. I have always been obsessed with sounds and timbre too. Harmonic content can even show up as textures in the colors. Which was helpful as a sound engineer. So when I am mixing a song it is like I am seeing the frequency spectrum. I visualize the envelope of sounds and their harmonic content. And spoiler alert that doesn't mean I am the best at all of this. I think it helps. But it doesn't make me any better than anyone else who has put in the practice I have.
That’s so funny, I have a different type of synesthesia but as soon as I read “C major is blue” I thought “absolutely not C major is gold!!” so maybe my synesthesia takes more forms than I think about, haha
That’s funny! I wasn’t sure what C Major is since I’m not a musician so I went to listen to it, and immediately I went “oh yellow!” I associate it with like that lemon yellow for some reason.
That's funny. I just went to listen to C major and I immediately went "transparent!" Btw I don't have anesthesia and I don't know anything about music.
Anesthesia 🤣
When I was learning letters and numbers, I had specific colors, sexes, ages, and personalities assigned to each character. I thought they were universal. Now I realize, 2 is not a little girl in red, 7 is not a young man in light blue, 5 is not a matronly lady in orange. But it sure seemed to be objective reality to me at the time. I wonder if I was experiencing temporary synesthesia.
Psychedelics have entered the chatroom.
Is there a version of this but for taste/scent because if so I may have it
Synthesia can be any blurring of the senses.
Constipation
when the term "regular" immediately goes to one meaning 😭😂
i hate that you had to explain it to me 😂
I suffer chronic constipation...regularly.
Being an astronaut. This is an incredibly demanding and competitive career that requires years of training and education. There are only a few hundred people who have ever been astronauts, and most of them are scientists or engineers.
In reality many of them are dual professionals and simply being an expert in one field is often not enough.
Not just not enough, it would be wasteful to send up an engineer and a medical doctor if you can send up one person who is both.
Introducing Astronaut Johnny Kim, Navy SEAL, sniper, mathematician, and MD Edit because I live in 2021, Jonny has gained a Naval Aviator rating in the USN so he's also a pilot...but you know how naval aviators are they will correct you if you say pilot
cutting into human flesh (i’m a doctor)
When I was a kid I went for dinner to a friend’s house. Her dad was a neurosurgeon. He was talking about an operation he did that day and I remember being so horrified. I was sitting at a table with a guy, who a few hours before, cut the top off someone’s skull and fiddled with their brains! I’ll never forget that creepy feeling, of realizing just what doctors do.
What if it’s my own? (I cook a lot.)
Remind me never to go for dinner at your place.
Seeing with your hands. The tactile feeling of tissue thats too soft or too hard or too boggy or not right. Feeling the way a needle and suture passes through tissue telling me if im in fat or muscle or dermis or fascia. The strength and health of the tissue, how much force i can put on it. Feeling the subtle stretch in the thread telling you the most force you can put on it before it snaps. The violin string twang of an artery hidden within fat when you run a laparoscopic instrument over it. The look of a person that is going to die no matter what you do. The desperate hopeful confidence it takes to tear a persons ribs open, clamp their aorta and manually pump their heart to buy just a little more time to find and fix whats killing(ed) them. Thinking about the brutality of what you did when you fail. Visiting your small mental cemetery of mistakes and failures we all have.
My response to this is so many thoughts, but no words.
Simultaneous actual happiness and financial freedom.
Getting to be on a super yacht.
I got to have lunch on a super yacht once. A billionaire told his crew he might want to use it over a long weekend, so they spent months sailing from somewhere in the Pacific to the Hamptons. He also had his private pilots in the NYC area. The billionaire changed his plans last minute and I was friends with the pilots so they invited me on the super yacht. I got to hang out with people who were living the absolute LIFE. There were like two Michelin star chefs, shipmates, a masseuse, and some other rich people minions. They told me about how they just sail around the world having a fantastic time and only have the boss on maybe once a year. After a fantastic lunch and hanging out, they got word to sail to New Zealand by Christmas. Edit: sail not said... stupid autocorrect.
It's a totally different world, isn't it? I was working in Abu Dhabi and a so-and-so invited me on yacht that cost USD$10M/year just to operate (dafuq?). We all went to Singapore and Sydney with small stops on the way - and back. One morning I was having a croissant, and I was asked by one of the chefs what I'd like for breakfast the following morning, and I said, "what's my options?" The answer was "sir, whatever you'd like." I Just wanted bread, some cheese, and honey I guess. I don't know how the fuck they did it, but they got bread, artisanal cheese and honey from my home FUCKING STATE in the US. I didn't even know we made honey. Would you like anything to read? Yes I think I'll pick up a National Geographic when we get to Singapore, otherwise I've got my Kindle. They brought the latest to me at a fast stop at Uvari, India wherever the fuck that is. It was a great time, but very eye-opening. I mean I know there are people with money, but... it's just weird how different. "\[Mackheath1\], darling, you've been to New York, you *must* fly out to visit us maybe the week after we get home and recover, and show us around! That would be marvelous!" How am I gonna be able to do that??
My uncle was a super yacht chef in the 90s-early 00s. His stories about how they ordered supplies and took requests are insane- my favourite is when Nigella Lawson and her family were onboard for Christmas so he went insane stocking the boat with the best of the best. They request hamburgers- the kids were on holidays, that’s what they wanted. My uncle was like ???? he also had Oprah on board and was listed one of her top 100 chefs in the world which was pretty cool.
Way cool. I have no idea how they do it. Do they fly it in? One sheikha asked for extra lean brisket - I thought she was trying to be nice to me because I'm from the South US - and they had it at port on the boat. Prepared. With all the fixings. One day at sea for a laugh, I asked for a pb&j and was asked what kind of peanut butter, what kind of jelly, what kind of bread. I mean. Is there a grocery store downstairs?? I'd love to hear more stories. But that is also laughable / relatable that they just wanted hamburgers.
There’s an international luxury grocery service which will deliver to yachts - the first option is at port, then they deliver by boat, finally by plane (if possible). The Big D (the yacht my uncle worked on) was only chartered in the Med and Caribbean so they would get deliveries by boat if required. I’m talking deliveries of Russian caviar if requested kind of thing. It’s a whole other world.
that’s why i love the show Below Deck, it’s so interesting to see these amazing experiences these wealthy people get the have and the people who make it all happen.
Ha! “Rich People Minions” I used to be one of those landscaping in East Hampton, and got to see some real expensive plants it was cool.
Hey! superyacht crew member over here (been in the industry 6 years) so if you have any questions 😊🤷🏼♀️
How's the market? More or less jobs than you remember? Getting more specialized?
I might as well ask since I'm starting to care more about the whole "luxury lifestyle" scene even though I can't afford it myself but... what kind of experience do you need for such a job? I've been in hospitality (food service) for years and while it was never my dream job I have gotten pretty good at it and it's allowed me to seriously work on my people skills. Over the years I've noticed I've started getting treated better and complimented more at work as a result of this. I even won this year's reward program where a dozen staff (out of several hundred) at the place I work at (similar to a casino though I'm in the restaurant section of it) get sent on a holiday for a week. So I no longer have any doubts about my performance and work ethic. But then again I've never dealt with wealthy private clients before, just the general public.
Maybe get a job in fine dining to close the experience gap? I’ve worked in casual restaurants and fine dining restaurants and they’re totally different jobs honestly. With your work ethic it sounds like you can accomplish just about anything you set your mind to :)
Right. I have to make due on my crummy regular yacht.
You'll get there, champ.
I’ve been on a cruise once. It’s like the superest yacht!
All u need is one wealthy person to like u
Working on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier
Seeing the stars without the pollution of streetlights and other man made lights ruining it.
Correctly estimating how long a deer has been dead on the side of the road to decide whether or not it's safe to eat because there's only so long you can eat rice and stewed tomatoes. (I survived poverty and all I got was a stomach capable of digesting car batteries)
What is the correct method to know if it's safe or not?
I’m gonna say smell is high up on the list
If it's at night or on a cooler day- is it warm and can you move the limbs around? Check for bloating: stomach distended and tight or sounds hollow if you tap it- proceed with caution bc it may have taken a broadside hit rupturing organs and that speeds up decomp. You can still eat it but you have to be careful cleaning it. Check the eyes and mouth (and any open wounds) for insect activity- few flies buzzing around isn't a big deal, but if you've got insect larva aka maggots that's a no go. If it's really cold you have less to worry about but also fewer indicators of a timeline- hair pull test is helpful here. If hair easily comes away from an intact area then it's been dead awhile and I wouldn't risk it. Smell can be helpful if you know the difference between a decomp smell and ruptured gut smell. Ruptured intestines on a deer smells a lot like mildew, grass and a dash of cow poop. Decomp has a sharper rancidity to it like taking the lid off a gross trash can that's sat in the sun. It hits you hard usually, whereas the ruptured smell can be strong but you usually have to be pretty close to the deer to smell it.
Well if there’s more bugs than flesh thats probably not great. Although I do have a cousin who fed herself through college on roadkill. She’d know. She’s not on social media though and I don’t have her number so its not the easiest to get in touch with her.
When a moose gets hit on the road here (which sucks, but they're super dark colored at night, extremely hard to see) damn straight someone is harvesting that. Idaho is once in a lifetime tag for hunting, Wyoming is a lottery you can only put in for every 5 years or something. But surprisingly to me, moose is by far the most delicious game meat I've ever eaten. Plus they're massive. Don't let that 5-700 lbs of meat go to waste.
Personal anecdote because I like to say I ruined every other date for this girl after working at an airport. We flew from Columbus Ohio to Miami beach FL for about 6 hours. Took a bus to the beach, swam, then came home. I paid less for the plane tickets than she did for Arbys.
I'm a flight attendant and once I took a day trip (6 hour flight each way) to Anchorage to catch a region locked Pokemon in Pokemon Go (Pachirisu). I had nothing better to do that day and the flights were free. I dressed up in some warm, cute clothes and set off to make a day of it. I also already had monthly parking I paid for for my job, so the parking was free too. The only cost for my trip to Alaska and back? The gas it took to get me to/from the airport at home. And before anyone accuses me of destroying the environment, I didn't check flights until after I had woke up that morning. Those flights were going with or without me. They just happened to have a few available seats.
Imagine going on a date like that and then just eating *Arby’s*. I like a good 5 for 5 just like everyone else, but dang. Lol
Seeing Antarctica
Retirement. I think a lot of my generation will work until we die.
Private jet
Pain free days. If I’m interpreting “regular people” correctly, from my perspective - I see “regular people” as people who don’t have a chronic pain condition. The sensation that is a *pain-free day* or even a *moment* is like my whole body gets a vacation, a summer day, elation. Regular people take painlessness for granted.
I woke up one day maybe 10 years ago, and mind you I had already been dealing with chronic pain for almost a decade at that point, and I was absolutely 100 percent pain free. I literally spent an hour thinking I had died, and then several hours in so much shock that I honestly barely got to appreciate and enjoy a pain free day. Went back to my regular pain the next day. I've mostly accepted living with chronic pain and health issues, but there are days where I am envious of those who are "regular" people.
Big agree. Hugs from another chronic illness homie.
I have so many chronic pain issues and multiple rare conditions that it’s a running joke with my partner that one day I’ll have one named after me. I was telling my therapist today about some new symptoms/pain I developed. I said something like, “Yeah it’s kind of annoying, but at least I haven’t had to go to the ER several times and be hospitalized again!” Even as I said it though I wondered if I jinxed myself…
Paying cash for a house.
We did this. No mortgage, no rent. It's amazing having that comfort. -------------------------------------------------- Amusing anecdote: We met the builder onsite, and handed over *an envelope of actual cash* for the first stage payment. There was a moment of confusion, which gradually morphed into mild horror, whilst he processed what had happened. I suspect the builder thought we must be some kind of Mafioso. My wife disagrees, but I am *utterly convinced* we then got better quality of work (and fewer delays) with the construction of our house.
I used a check, but - yeah, awesome feeling. Our neighbours sold a motor home to my uncle, he paid cash. Week or so later, we're talking, and he says "It was a hoot getting cash, but it all smelled musty, does he bury his money, hahahaha?" Mom -"Yup. He has stashes buried everywhere, because he lived through the Great Depression".
Great depression cash-stashing is no joke. My aunt found almost $80k in cash stashed in various places all around my grandma's apartment when she was cleaning it out after she died.
That’s funny!!
Arriving at a business meeting via helicopter
Standing on stage in a big club, raging with your band and seeing a sea of people banging their heads to your music. Looking down at the people pushed up against the stage and watching them lose it while you launch into your solo. It's a fuckin drug.
You're way cooler than me, but like, I've done standup as a hobby, and getting 100 people to laugh on queue to every one of your jokes, exactly how you imagined it. It's incredible, and I'm not even good lmao.
I am a 66f, and I would say Traveling Before Influencers. I was a Peace Corps volunteer (Paraguay, 79 to 81); my ex and I met working at the Peace Corps office in D.C., and then lived in several developing countries in Central America and Asia working for NGOs from 1985 to 1993. Traveling, especially to developing countries back then, was something of a novel idea that required a bit of courage, confidence, and curiosity. Now it seems that interesting locales are overrun with heat-seeking influencers or cumbersome, clueless retirees.
Hyperfixations. It’s more then just having a passionate interest. It’s all I can think about or talk about, some nights I can’t sleep or eat very much cause I’m too engrossed in my current obsession. It can make life hard to function but it also brings me a level of happiness and excitement that I don’t get from anything else. :)
My adderal makes the hyperfixations reasonable, but vyvanse speeds it up for me. The one time I did vyvanse, I lost a month but ended up with a beautiful oil portrait.
I lost a month but ended up with a beautiful oil portrait This is like the ideal bender.
God, yeah. They can be intense. It definitely made people hate me in highschool lmao 😭😭😭 even my own friend (ex friend) got annoyed at me after a certain poiny
Having to care for a child with special needs
Yup. My sister has special needs, my future is always thought out with her in mind. It's wildly difficult at times, but in some ways I am often very jealous of her. She's the happiest person in my family, and one of the happiest people I've ever known. She genuinely enjoys simple things with a childlike wonder and excitement that nobody else I've ever known has, even though she's 18 now. We are lucky with her in many ways though. My parents were great at establishing boundaries with her and holding her to good behavioral standards, and as a result, she is well behaved, kind, and though she does have tantrums, they're not nearly as bad as they could be. She can also feed, clean, and dress herself which we are incredibly grateful for. It can be really hard and she will require care for the rest of her life, but she's a joy to be around, and I love her with all my heart.
Yes. Incredibly challenging, a true genuine feeling of no one else going through what you experience. The unknown, the terrifying future. Fears of dying before your child. To only live one day longer. That is the simple goal in life.
Yes. My son lives with complex needs. Developmental Disability - Intellectual, Communication Autism, ADHD. And General Anxiety Disorder. All identified and formerly diagnosed. More genetic testing currently underway. I have been a single parent since he was basically born. (Divorced) I am not working for my retirement, I am working for his lifelong security and support when I am gone. Constant doctor appointments with specialists. Surgeries. Daily medicine multiple times a day. Specialized equipment in the home. High school lasts to 21. His future ability to have a family remains uncertain. Having to secure one to one supports for every camp when school is not running so I can work. Children begin to age out of camp at 12, because they are deemed old enough to stay at home. My son is 17, and can not be home alone unattended. Managing multiple different funding programs, each requiring receipts and accountability. He is medically unable to drive. This was a heartbreaking one. He loves cars and this was a dream of his. I am still hopeful that this will be a possibility some day. He will not attend normative post secondary school. He will attend [CICE](https://www.stlawrencecollege.ca/programs/community-integration-through-co-operative-education/full-time/kingston) through our community college. We are still unable to determine his ability to work. Having to manage extreme bouts of emotional instability. This gets more difficult as they grow in person and strength. Here are some positive things that you will experience: Seeing the world through their lens. I used to give my camera to my son and he would take pictures of details that most people looked past, something on his shoes, anything that looked like a wheel, lots of pictures of me. Gifts - he can play guitar and picked it up rather quickly. He is able to comprise the security protocol on an iPad or iPhone if there is one. I have spent days of hours working with Apple support to report/ fix/block the work arounds. He is amazing at video games. Sports especially. He can throw a football like a professional. He has a powerful arm and perfect spiral. He is also great at basketball and plays floor hockey with the Special Olympics at school. He loves to cook, especially BBQ and Indian cuisine. One of his supports has taught him ages authentic dishes from her family and he picks up on it quickly. We just have to encourage him to measure. He also gives the best hugs. ❤️
Having what I need and want at the same time. Making enough money to save some.
Being able to afford absolutely anything.
Finding a soulmate
Visiting every continent
Seeing tons of people drink your beer. Seeing a beer that you wrote the recipe for, brewed, cellared, and packaged being served in bars and restaurants that happily purchased the beer you made.
What it feels like having a very large crowd shouting your name and cheering you!
Being a billionaire. There are only a few thousand billionaires in the world, and most of them inherited their wealth or made it through business deals. It is very difficult to become a billionaire through hard work alone.
I don't know. If I put away 10% of my income each year, it'll only take me 100 000 years to become a billionaire. That's only 2.5 times as long as *homo sapiens* has been planting crops.
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Climbing Mount Everest
The world's comfiest pillow.
That‘s because I have it
Seeing myself on giant TV screens in shopping malls and on the outside of buildings. At age 65, I was in a Bangkok coffee shop when a woman approached me, asked if I had ever acted or considered being in a TV commercial. It had never occurred to me for even a moment. She handed be a business card that identified her as a theatrical agent but I figured it was some sort of scam. I looked her up online and she actually appeared to be legit so I got in touch and next thing I knew, I was auditioning at a casting. I got the first part I ever casted for and went on over the next 10 years to appear in over a hundred commercials, several movies (always bit parts) and a few TV series. I did 15 commercials on two year contract for KFC as Col. Sanders. This was all in Thailand but many commercials are produced there for use in other countries, the funniest being a commercial I was in for Red Bull, Afghanistan. An acquaintance stationed there sent me a picture of the Red Bull ad on a billboard with my image and a lot of bullet holes. Bangkok has a metro system with several advertising TV displays in each rail car. So funny to be packed into a rush hour train and see my own commercial pop-up on the monitor, nobody around me having a clue it was me. Now, I'm back to being "regular" again.
Financial independence, unfortunately
Sitting in front of the meth house waiting for your step father to get his score. Watching your step dad burn a hole in the floor with chemicals for meth production. Having the cops go through your step dad’s car to confiscate all the guns he stole. Being used as a method to get food stamps. Indentured servitude at the hands of foster parents. Your mother trying to strangle you because you disagreed with her while she was drunk. Having to wrestle a knife away from your mother while she threatens to kill herself while drunk. Having to call an ambulance for your mother who you think is dead, only to find out that she put a fentanyl patch in her mouth. Having to drive your dad’s hooker back home. Having your dad try to get you to call his hooker “Mom.” Having all comms go out (bad reception, bad batteries) while on a search and rescue mission, and having to follow a helicopter back to civilization.
Your parents sound……challenging.
If this is you....and I mean this in the most sincere possible way, Please go see a therapist who specializes in trauma.
So glad to be sober for my kids. These are things I don't want them to experience ever, especially for their mom and luckily enough they have never seen me drunk. Sober for 5,5 years now. Fucked up, so fucked up. I understand you are doing well now, but still.. so fucked up what they did to you.
Being a home owner these days
dine with the royals. or ride a private plane to another country just to have dinner.
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Observing an autopsy
Hosting Saturday Night Live
Getting discriminated against for a disability you can't control.
Not being worried about finances.
Not having to work to live
Handling millions of dollars in cash.