Blaming millennials for all of the world's ills is a popular pastime of late, but the reality is that we don't have that kind of power. If we did, we would have fixed all of the things people complain about by now.
Reddit user u/GreenShirt7 asked:
"Millennials, What is one thing that the rest of us just don't understand?"
50. The Avocados Are A Red Herring
GiphyWhat it's like to have no capital in you're 30s, and now be too old to acquire any.
Not all of us like "smashed avocado toast" (I don't even like avocado).
We're not adverse to hard work, life isn't any easier than it was when you were my age, life isn't going to get any easier when you're my age.
49. Hear Our Plea
The minimum wage has not been properly adjusted to inflation for years and as a result all of our wages are lower.
I only buy avocados when I make tacos, I don't go to Starbucks, and I don't own an iPhone. The system is broken guys...
48. Inaccessible Expectations
I'm the oldest on the millennial age spectrum, I was raised with strict rules and worked since I was 14 (THINK about it, boomer, I've already been working for 24 years now and I'm not even 40 yet). I moved out of the house with only enough to buy a bus pass, and paid rent with my first full time-job paycheck after crashing on friends' couches. I had one fork, and no knife, and when things hit the fan, food banks didn't give food to people with jobs back then so I had to call friends and ask them for help.
Skip forward to today: housing costs a fortune compared to before, taxes are incredibly high, wages have stagnated for I've now lost count of the number of years. What is my generation going to tell their children? That things will get better?
Boomers lucked out on the biggest economic boom this planet has ever seen, got good paying jobs with little experience and bought real-estate at affordable prices. They also taught their children, either directly or indirectly, that this was the norm. Turns out they were only living conditions by boomers for boomers.
I am not the care-free, spoiled and lazy persona you associate with the term « millennial ». Although at times I find myself really wishing I could be for once.
47. It's Snowing
Calling us snowflakes doesn't make us snowflakes. It makes you look like a snowflake. Back in the 20th century it was legal to discriminate against so many groups too many to name here. And you want to call millennials snowflakes lol
Spanking, yelling, and having no empathy towards children (or others for that matter) doesn't make you a giver of "tough love," it just makes you an jerk. We can look at studies — PEER-REVIEWED ONES — about how children who were abused verbally turned out.
A sub-2000-square foot house in my neighborhood costs an average of $1.4 million.
46. Just Exhausted, Babes. So Exhausted.
If you ask us a question, you don't get to reject the answer. That's what you don't understand: We'll be honest, you'll say we're whining. We'll be bitter, you'll say we're entitled. If you already know the answer why did you ask? What answer were you expecting? I'm at the point where I no longer answer questions from generations older than me; I ask them what they think the answer is, or if they'd believe me if I told them?
Sometimes it actually helps. It snaps the conversation out of casual and into focus. It makes them realize they either didn't think critically about the question they asked, or that they had preconceptions about my response before I gave it. Or I'm just told im being disrespectful and given a platitude about waiting for good things on hollow promises.
45. Boomers Love To Shirk
We have to be taught how to do things. When I was in my early teens, about 12-13, the dishwasher was full, so my parents told me to do the rest by hand, which I hadn't a clue where to even start, like I was unsure whether I fill up one side of the sink with soap and let it soak first or just apply the soap directly. I decided to ask my dad, since he was right there.
He went off explaining how I was lazy and and dumb for not knowing, when I had never been taught how. My parents constantly expected me to know how to do things without even pointing me in the right direction to start, or helping me get setup. I would understand if this was something that they had taught me before, but they hadn't. You can't just tell someone to do something they've never done before, expecting them to know how to do it and executing the task perfectly.
44. I Want To Sit
We should give Cashiers chairs. Them looking ''less professional'' will be GREATLY outclassed by the improved attitude of not standing for 8 hours.
43. We're Trying To Do Better
Tired of older generations accusing us of coddling our kids or otherwise telling us that we're raising our children poorly. We were all but ignored by our parents and want to do better by our own.
"I never let my children talk at the dinner table"
OK great, I'm sure there's no correlation between that and the fact your kid blames you for everything that went wrong in their lives to their therapist.
42. It Would Be Preferable
At 27, I've worked more then people i know in their 60s. I've worked 6-7 days a week. 12-14 hours a day for the last 7 years. I have medical bills from doing so that i now can't afford to pay, so i need to work more to pay it off. I'm so tired and burnt out, I don't have time to rest, relax, recharge, find a hobby, have friends or relationships. I just want death to come and save me.
41. It's Always A Struggle
No mom. I can not secure a 150K job (that my dad got with a high school education) with my teaching degree, post-bac and Masters degree. No, not even if I really wanted to.
Also, I really cannot afford to stay at home with my kids as I have a mortgage.. and three kids. Enough said.
40. You Ruined Everything
GiphyBefore judging the economic behaviors of millennials or calling us spoiled and entitled, please remember: Baby Boomers inherited the greatest economy in the history of our species from their parents in the 1950s-1960s, decided it wasn't good enough, and mortgaged their children's futures to keep the party going longer.
39. "I'm Not Stupid, I'm Broke."
We aren't stupid. I constantly dread the fact that I haven't started saving well for retirement, and I'm 27 y/o. Things are still on my mind even tho I haven't made any progress. But until I make some more money I'm lucky to have an emergency $1,000 lying around. So grandpa get off my back while I establish myself before judging me at thanksgiving for not having a , probably disastrous , 401k set up. I'm not stupid, I'm broke.
38. We Should Be So Lucky
Forget the jokes about us killing diamonds and Applebee's- it is NOT the case that we aren't interested in things like going to the theater, art movies, going to see live music, having a general practitioner(!?), going to museums- any time you hear someone older bemoan the fact that millennials "just aren't interested in" something that is a real cultural mainstay, it's NOT TRUE.
We have a wide body of interests and more exposure to high culture than any other generation, but on top of all our problems with wages and housing, it's SUPER expensive to regularly go out to cultural outlets. Yes, some places have low cost/free programming and we love that, but that might be one program a year.
37. The Insurance Problem
I didn't see any mention of US health insurance here. And if you have a family, a good portion of your check will easily go toward premiums and deductibles. Pay $4500 per year and another 15k out of pocket and then your insurance will finally cover something.
Meanwhile boomers have insurance they got when they were hired 30 years ago that covers everything and can't understand why we won't go to the doctor.
36. Lied To
We entered the workforce during the Great Recession. It wasn't possible to just walk into a business, apply, and get a job. The generation before us got the benefits of the 90s boom, and the generation after us is entering the workforce in the middle of a decent economy. We were also told throughout the course of our lives to do what we love and that college was essential.
It's not whining about how hard life is, it's ventin about the bad time we had and the effects that will take years or decades to get through...like enormous student loans we couldn't pay because there were no jobs and we got stupid degrees.
I didn't go to college until recently and enlisted straight out of high school, but my generation got screwed over.
35. Feeling The Bad Stuff And Choosing To Live Anyway
Being vulnerable and honest with your feelings is a good thing. Vulnerability is super difficult and it's a strength, not a weakness. A whole lot of older folks just stuff down all their "bad" feelings and sweep them under the rug.
34. We're All Going To Die
That the baby boomers and older messed up life as we know it, but will never realize because its effects aren't instantaneous. The permanent results aren't likely to be seen for a few decades, but they are in fact there and will hit the world right around the time you all die out.
33. The Economy Will Also Crash
I'm a teacher, my wife is a doctor. We still can't buy a house without help from her parents, despite having full time, good paying jobs.
I don't know who's buying boomer houses, but they're going to be in for some disappointment when they try to sell their 500K - 1M houses.
32. The New Ways To Meet People
Video games are absolutely a reasonable form of a social life. Just because I don't see these friends in person doesn't make the social aspect of our relationship any less real than that of someone I know irl.
31. No More Oppression
There isn't as much of a rise in the occurrence of certain conditions (autism, anxiety, depression, etc.), it's that thanks to better access to information, we can see and analyze the symptoms and find out who to go to for help.
Same goes for the "surge" of LGBT+ culture that I hear my elders complain about. Young people these days can tap a screen or type on a keyboard and see that they aren't alone in feeling the way they do. They find community, they embrace it, and they understand that they are not alone in being "different."
The Information Age is a double aged sword for sure, but it's raised awareness of so many things that we used to just shut up about and pretend they didn't exist.
30. Rewind (Wind Wind)
GiphyMost of us aren't entitled, most of us are very aware how extremely lucky we are to live in the time that we do. Previous generations worked hard to get us to this point in society and there's nothing that can take away from that. But why can't we improve upon what was built instead of just accepting things because "that's how it's always been". Or even worse, why does it seem like we are being forced to go backwards in terms of progress?
29. No Cheek Please
Registered Nurse Full time job 31yo After rent and bills I have 100£ a week to live on, fuel the car, feed my dogs and get groceries.
And my dad has the cheek to ask why I don't have 'savings.'
28. You're Letting Us Down
How much it totally ruins your reputation as hippies, punks, and rock icons to constantly complain about the way "the younger generation is ruining America." We might not say this often, but we looked up to previous generations - to the point of obsessively searching for nostalgia with our tastes in clothing, music and even in the resurrected ideology of past generations. Don't get a millennial started talking about vintage anything.
You're still setting an example, and the example you're setting now is "everyone turns into an old curmudgeon eventually."
27. They're Just Full Traitors
That everything that's said about us is EXACTLY what we grew up listening to our parents' generation say about Xers and now it feels really bad seeing them turn on us in exactly the same way.
Or maybe thinking about all the ways that the Xers and Boomers have pulled up the ladder that they climbed to their success and now we get sh*t on for being lazy or not caring enough.
26. Mesmerized
Not sure how to word this exactly- older generations seem to label us (perhaps rightly) as materialistic and media obsessed, but it was older generations that ceaselessly advertised all this stuff to us. It's like they spent all this time trying to brainwash us to make a buck and then got mad that it worked.
25. My Mittens Aren't Attached To My Coat
We are grown ups now, so please stop treating us like we are ten. We have degrees, careers, marriages, children, and houses. It's way past time to let us be part of the decision making.
(I have some family matriarchs trying to rule with an iron fist.)
24. Give Up The Power
9/11 happened as we were graduating. A lot of us enlisted, served and died. (Us being Millennials, I personally did not enlist.)
Then those that served come home wrecked and infantilized by the general public. (2 of my brothers in law and some friends and associates, for example.)
Also, as adults, we've never known a stable economy where we had the possibility to prosper.
Our parents raised us on McDonalds and Lunchables and never set aside a dime for college, but we're called lazy and financially irresponsible. When we focus on our kids, we're criticized for coddling them. When we focus on ourselves we're selfish. We focus on our pets we're frivolous.
We'll never gain foothold until the Boomers die or decide to listen.
23. We're Not Gonna Take It
The fact that us US based Millennials grew up in the greatest country to ever exist in the 80's and 90's and we've watched greedy boomers suck the life out of it. We've watched everything we were promised get thrown out. Our bright, glimmering futures have been stolen from us by skyrocketing tuitions, medications, housing, etc. Then we get blamed for it.
22. Of Course What Really Matters Is The Blame
Telling us that we will be the ones to fix all the problems that the Baby Boomers caused.... Like you've left us barely anything to hold on to and you blame us for everything but Oh! We will fix everything ourselves... And we get blamed for why older people don't have jobs and that Millennials don't deserve jobs. I read that somewhere once in my emails and I was so livid. It isn't fair to us that we are blamed for things we can't control.
21. Begone Ye Pestilence
It's not your religion that turned me off, it's the way your fellow adherents act in its name.
Deny science, spout hateful messages about gay people, or seriously claim a 12 year old assault victim has to carry a baby to term at peril to her life?
I don't want anything to do with such disgusting people.
20.
That it's hard, even in my early thirties with a good full time job, to afford rent and food and everything else. I wish I had been born in a time where working a job like I have now would pay for a three bedroom house and two cars. No, I'm not lazy. I just don't think I should have to work two full time jobs just to survive.
Yes! And that most jobs aren't even full time. They're either contract full time or part time so that businesses don't have to pay benefits.
19.
Older generations: "Find what you love to do and do it!"
Also older generations: "No don't do that, you can't make a living off that."
18.
That if I fail to get a job from multiple different places it doesn't mean I'm not trying it means the place that I tried are just picky with who they hire.
Can confirm. Recently moved states due to an emergency - put out over 40 applications in the span of a week, only received one callback and the job I did end up landing is only due to the fact that I knew someone working at the facility. :/ Looking for employment is an absolutely miserable process.
Edit: To add, I am more than qualified for the positions I applied for, but even with experience, it's just a really disheartening process.
17.
I'm the oldest millennial. I have worked ridiculously hard, with no end in sight, to make the same money my dad, with no degree or specialized training, made and makes to this day.
I actually earn more than my dad does today.
I can't buy his house at its current price, though, whereas he did it on a single income (he started a new business) while supporting a a wife and one (eventually two) children. I'm single.
Not that this matters, because my job is hundreds of miles from his house. I can't afford houses here either.
16.
"I paid my way through law school with a night job"
Yeah, and your law school was $450 per semester, Dennis
15.
The whole "I had my house paid by the time i was 25" from old people.
Houses cost a whole lot less then, Barbara.
14.
That nearly every place you apply wants you to do it online. No, going in will not help you get your foot in the door. More often than not it's just going to annoy them. Also - super annoying when people don't believe you about this so they go in and ask for an application and are told to apply online. Like..I legit could have told you this would happen.
I was at target, working behind the counter at the customer service desk, saw a guy walk in and INSIST on applying in person.
They found him a physical application and once he left they threw it in the trash. That was one of the managers who did that by the way.
Update : For clarification He walked in, asked for a physical copy, said he couldn't put in online because he didn't have a computer, the network for the store was down - He was friendly, shook hands, and had decent qualifications. They didn't care.
No, I don't find it shocking that you, your son/daughter, or your family pet got a job walking in some place. Not everyone's experience is the same. Every time I've followed up on an application, went in person, or tried to see a manager I get told to leave and that they will contact me when ready. At two places, they even put me on hold for half an hour before hanging up when I tried to follow up on an application. Call backs were rejected. Every job I've gotten involved either a phone interview followed by a start day, an online interview followed by a start day, or getting called to meet HR.
Target was just the most overt example, but nowhere I've worked has ever accepted walk-ins, taken physical anything, or let people talk to the manager about employment. For reference, I've worked big-box-store jobs, factory work, and non-chain stores. Your experience may differ, but you are the exception, not the rule. Even my local generic corner store and a new-age accessories shop want online apps, and my neighborhood family-owned pizza place has a detailed website.
Most people don't know the age of millennials....
To them, a millennial is someone that they hate and happens to be younger than them.
Can confirm. I saw a lady on Facebook who essentially trashed millenials in one paragraph and in the next bragged about her daughter being in a high level position at her company and working very hard after finishing college. She was convinced her daughter wasn't a millennial, even when people showed her the ranges. The discussion devolved into an argument about what the year range was.
12.
Every time I read a thread about being a millennial, it just ends in depression.
That's the legacy our parents' generations have left us — depression and anxiety.
CTRL + SHIFT + [Plus]
There are a lot of hotkey combinations where CTRL + [Key] is different from CTRL + SHIFT + [Key].
Some useful info: https://turbofuture.com/computers/keyboard-shortcut-keys
To put it a little more directly for anyone who doesn't understand: Criticizing the way someone was raised is a criticism of the people who raised them, not the children who had no say in the matter.
In addition, no kid ever got a participation trophy and thought "oh, this is amazing, I'm a winner!". You either didn't care about it at all or realized how much of a symbol of losing it was.
Everytime you bash millenials for taking participation ribbons remember who came up with that stupid idea. Here is a clue: it wasn't us.
9.
Most things millennials gripe about aren't just whiny child BS, they're legitimate issues.
Unaffordable housing
Lower wages
Employers requiring more experience for "entry level" positions
Unreal student loan debt
These are real issues. Since the average retirement age keeps increasing, these issues will only get worse.
8.
We got some really bad advice, did everything we were asked to do, and when it didn't work we got yelled at for not doing it hard enough.
I think this is really the big one. They complain about Millennials making bad decisions and doing things wrong when they did...EXACTLY WHAT THEY WERE TOLD TO!
Boomers: Do your homework! You don't want to be flipping burgers the rest of your life!
Boomers: Study hard in school! You don't want to be flipping burgers the rest of your life!
Boomers: Get into a good college! You don't want to be flipping burgers the rest of your life!
Boomers: Go to class! You don't want to be flipping burgers the rest of your life!
Boomers: Get your degree! You don't want to be flipping burgers the rest of your life!
Millenial: "Wait, I worked my butt off did all of this! WHY THE HELL AM I FLIPPING BURGERS for a living?!?!?"
Boomer: "Are you complaining about flipping burgers?!?!?!? Your generation is so ENTITLED!"
7.
I think we are the only gen to have grown up in both the pre-internet and internet era.
I remember growing up with VCRs and Walkman's. I remember dial-up internet when the internet was still a gimmick and not all that interesting. I remember growing up in a state of constant change. Both socially, politically and technologically.
I think this state of constant change and constant adaptation is why we do so well with technology, when our parents, just one gen earlier, grew up with a mostly analogue world, and that's why it's so hard for them to change with the world.
For better or worse, we have been given a unique way of growing up, and we are the only generation to have grown up in both 'eras' of history.
6.
Labor jobs are not shameful and you can actually earn good money doing it. Trades are dying because we were told to go to college and then get a desk job because it's better than what mom or dad does now.
I make more money now as a 23 y/o millennial in a labor job than my parents made combined when I was growing up. But they had a large 2 story house in the burbs when I grew up and now that I make such good money they can't fathom how I still can't afford to get my own house or why I still have to drive an old beat up truck rather than have a newer vehicle and park out in a garage of a nice house. Probably because y'all screwed up the housing market and economy so bad that making 80k a year I still can barely afford to support my wife (who also works) and son (the freeloading 2 y/o that just refuses to get a job geez).
5.
The reason older people can get away with "not being a computer/ technology person" is NOT because they are unnecessary. It's because you have your kids and grandkids to do that stuff for you. Stop putting down technology and maybe just say thank you to them.
4.
Millennials are not one homogenous group.
Some are successful, some are struggling.
Some are urban, some are rural.
Some have college education, some do not.
Some live with their parents, some live alone.
Some have marriage and kids, some are single.
Generalizing an entire generation makes it an "us vs them" argument, that you assume everyone is on one side or the other. Don't fall for this bs.
If someone is an entitled person, it's not because they're a millennial, it's because they're an entitled. It's not a generational thing.
Stop projecting societal frustrations on people who happened to be born in a different year than you, and realize that if you accept and address the real issues of societal change, we're all better off.
3.
Burnout. You can't forget burnout, it's basically the millennial condition.
We work because we need to. We get tired of working. But we get paid jack and our benefits are we have a 50/50 chance of our two weeks notice turning into immediate termination. We can't stop because something like 40% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck to the point where they'd struggle to come up with $200 in an emergency.
Minimum wage hasn't increased in decades, college tuition and textbook price increases have increased wildly, and when it's all said and done older generations call us lazy and greedy for wanting any part of the American dream because the whole thing is only attainable by the rich who are taxed lower than ever.
2.
The economy is growing but our paychecks are not.
Economists will tell you that wages generally increase with productivity – that you're paid in line with the value of what you do.
Related to this, that a $20K salary today is not equal to a $20K salary decades ago.
This is so important. I had a VP laugh when I told them we needed to pay someone $60k minimum for a position I was tasked with replacing that had previously been budgeted at $42k. I had to work with the CFO and fight tooth and nail, and they finally asked our payroll company to estimate the job value. When it came back $72k, they immediately approved $60k with benefits without question.
We had a really awkward situation hiring last year where every applicant for a junior position were requesting $10-15k more than the manager that was hiring the position. They ultimately had to opt to go with a 22 year old straight out of college to get the rate. She's a rockstar, but that incident kicked off a huge company salary assessment.
Also, powerpoint is also not a design program.
And if you’re going to use powerpoint as a design program, please at least export it as a pdf.
Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.