dudes_eating_beans [any]

Death to NATO, folks. Many people are saying it. Nasty, terrible organization.

Glad you’re still with us. Was worried your posts would get lost in the noise of this federation stuff.

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As someone that grew up in the type of town you described, there is no remedy other than leaving, which of course you already know. Easier said than done, yeah?

In my town, the choices available at the end of high school (assuming you made it that far without dropping out/dying from an od) were:

• going to an out of city/state college, which I definitely wasn’t smart enough to do, or at least, I didn’t care enough about academia back then because of the way I was taught.
• join the military (we always had recruiters sat up in the hallway and across from the lunch tables as early as 7th grade). This was also right after 9/11, so you were almost guaranteed to be flown to the desert and killed right away or if you survived left with permanent disabilities and ptsd. This is the route most of my friends back then took, and they are definitely not okay nowadays. They still wound up with a shit job after being discharged with the added bonus of ptsd, disabilities, and maybe a few stories to tell at the local bar.
• work at the local meat processing plant which everyone bragged paid really well ($12 hour in early 2000’s money) and get ptsd from slaughtering animals or dismember yourself
• work in the service industry until you die

I guess I kinda “lucked out” in that my mom ended up dating this guy that moved us to a bigger city with slightly more opportunities. I basically fucked around my entire 20’s working in the service industry, being subject to the worst kinds of people and every small business tyrant imaginable, and only became financially stable in my early/mid 30’s and landed a decent job where I don’t have to break my body down and allows me live comfortably.