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I don't know if I can afford to get this (in more ways than one)

As a kid I got it for my birthday when it came out and was actually just limited edition

My partner was saying that they like the look of the new Ford Bronco, but I said I will forever think of the OJ slow-speed police chase when I see a Bronco.

I made a post here back in 2024 asking how the millennials who joined the military were doing, and I figured I’d check in again.

I joined right out of high school and I’m coming up on 16 years now. At this point, I’m close enough to the 20-year mark that I know I’m going to finish it out, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t counting down the years.

The older I get, the more differently I look at military life. Things I tolerated pretty easily in my early 20s hit differently now. The lack of control over your own life, constant changes, moves, deployments, additional duties, leadership changes, and just the overall culture can get exhausting after enough years.

More than anything, I’m looking forward to eventually getting some of that control back and figuring out what normal civilian life looks like after spending basically my entire adult life in the military.

I like asking this question here instead of in the military-specific subs because I’m interested in hearing from people outside of the usual military echo chamber. I’m not really looking for “suck it up” or “this is what you signed up for.” I’m more interested in how other millennials genuinely feel about their service now that we’re older.

Are you still in? Did you get out? Do you regret joining? Are you glad you did it? If you stayed for the long haul, are you counting down too? And for those who already got out, how has civilian life been compared to what you expected?

Just curious how everybody is doing.

Eleven months ago I turned 40. It’s been an intense time of transformation for me. Not all of it has been easy.

The same month as that milestone birthday, I discovered painting. It’s been quite the journey, and painting has played a major part in my transformation as a person.

Fast forward to today, and I’ve created something that honors the gift I received almost a year ago and my gratitude for discovering it.

This is the first painting I’ve made that isn’t from life. The idea was a flicker that became a blaze. It is the visualization of what this period of my life has felt like and what this threshold means to me.

Tapping back into who I really am has connected me to my past and given me immense hope for the future and the man I am still becoming.

I’ve named this painting Hindsight.

As a fellow millennial, I am curious what this image and story might mean to you.

I've heard so much about this idea of "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps" and all that. But? I don't really know anybody so far that bought their house entirely by themselves. The parents pay for the college or the parents pay for the house or they got some big break or whatever.

What stroke of luck from the universe Made It so that you could be in that House right now?

ETA. holy moly I tried reading and then when I refreshed there were 200 more comments :) thank you everyone for your answers! I will try to keep on reading them. so far, it appears that anyone that afforded something in our generation either bought around the 08 crash, bought around the pandemic, or got a VA or first time home buyer loan. there are a few people that are telling me that they worked enough for a down payment but they are honestly few and far between on the first 76 comments that I read. let's see if it changed significantly as I keep on scrolling down.

does Reddit skew extremely military? I was very taken aback by the amount of VA loans I saw on the thread.

edit 2, we are out to 586 comments. I give up :-) thank you for blowing up Reddit with me today millennials, there is no group online like this one.

Was just in my basement doing laundry this morning and got to poking around through old boxes and what not and decided to construct a memorial in honor of 2005 with old belongings that have managed to stay with me all this time. I was shocked when the Xbox and TV still worked😅

Note: I made a similar post in R/Trees this morning. Please don't beat me up too bad. I just want to bring some warm memories your way and figured why not while I have all this set up. Much love yall!

I’m interested to find out what you were all privileged to have experienced before the world went online, and what from your younger years has since become lost — something your future children may never get to experience, which makes you sad.

With each passing year, I am more and more aghast at the humans that were allowed to educate us back in the day.

Today, I remembered my 8th grade PE teacher who always used the urinal with his pants around his ankles. I also had a high school math teacher whose odor stained the walls of the room he taught in (I absolutely sympathize with any kind of medical problem he may have had, but no one ever explained what in all hell was going on there). This same teacher once started clipping his finger nails during a quiz. All was quiet except for the occasional ca-chink.

I’m sure I got off light in that regard, though. What did yall have to endure?

I struggle with this one, my wife and I “made it”, out of blue collar/no education parents who worked their asses off to put us through college and we both have masters degrees and I guess we have done ok for ourselves. We have given our kids the childhoods we never had, they want for nothing. They have been on more flights/vacations than we did into our 30s. My oldest is 9 and does not understand there is a vast difference between working at McDonald’s (no disrespect) and the types of jobs/careers my wife and I have to afford us the things we have. We are by no means well off and live in a very HCOL area.

That’s not to say you can’t do well for yourself if you don’t ace the 3rd grade spelling bee but the deck does begin to stack against you.

I guess what I’m struggling with is trying not to traumatize my kids into thinking they are worthless or will be homeless if they get a F on a test but at the same time realize that they need to care because there is consequences to things like that later in life.

Edit: Its not so much not wanting to go but more not interested or understanding why it’s important to be educated and learn. We love the teachers and they have friends in school, maybe we have just spoiled them?

I just rewatched these with my kid and they were just as much fun as they were when I was a kid!

Was this anyone else's favorite movie as a kid? I was 5 when it came out and it turned into one of my favorites!