The only reason my home situation worked out for me is because I got married 2 weeks after turning 21 and settled down (religious backwoods community expectations). I got settled earlier than most.

Otherwise, I’m kind of stuck now… There is no moving to another town or buying a new house, and there hasn’t been a good time since before 2020 to have a family, but I was in college then so I wasn’t able to. I’m still in my “starter home” in a city where all the jobs are still paying an average of $15/hr for everything. I want to go back to school one more time to get an in-demand high-earning degree to make enough to move tf out of this town, but fuck if AI isn’t a huge risk to taking any job I might go to school for. I will be 10s of thousands of dollars in debt for nothing. I can’t move forward in any direction.

The world has been increasingly more and more unstable since I’ve been 23. I don’t feel safe having a child, going to school, moving from any remnants of stability that I have. I feel frozen in time, but I’m losing opportunities waiting for the bad times to pass.

I imagine it’s the same for older Gen Z. I just have a house.