You'd be surprised how many things I am ineligible for because of the diabetes. Life insurance? No way. Aflac? Some of it yes, but a lot of it no. And if I ever tried to get health insurance outside of work I expect I'd be laughed at to my face. It's pretty demoralizing. I should just start every conversation with an insurance agent with, "I have diabetes. Thanks for your time." It would save so much effort.
There are worse things, though. Being kicked off of your insurance for no reason other than some idiots voted for a Big Beautiful load of BS, for one thing. I cannot imagine how people are going to survive. Now that is demoralizing. Knowing that I am almost at 30 years with my workplace, and that I could retire with my full retirement in less than five years but actually can't because I need the health insurance? How much more demoralized can I get?
If you would, follow me down a rabbit hole of despair. Or no, don't. That's a rabbit hole I don't want to go down. It's just frustrating to know that I will have to work well into my old age, even though I will technically have enough of a retirement to live comfortably at a relatively young age, because I need health insurance, and unlike every other democratic nation health insurance in the USA is tied to your workplace.
In other news, I am nearing retirement age and what the actual ****? Let's switch gears entirely.
I consider myself a Xennial, the pronunciation of which is up for debate. I was born somewhere between the years 1964 and 1980, the years designated for Generation X, but I am close enough to a Millennial (1981-1996) that I have a lot of Millennial tendencies. Xennials have been referred to as the Goonies Generation, the Nintendo Generation, and the Oregon Trail Generation.
Sorry not sorry.
We Xennials are a micro generation, because you really have to have been born in a specific time period to have had an analog childhood and a digital adulthood. I watched the Challenger explode on repeat, learned how to make it to the bathroom and the kitchen in a single commercial break, saw 9/11 happen live on TV, and got my first cell phone all before I could rent a car. I was a play outside, ride my bike all over the neighborhood (sorry Mom), Muppet Babies loving kid that turned into a flannel wearing, "Clueless" quoting teenager that knew how to use a computer and make a pretty mean mixtape. Or, to put it in boyband terms, I was old enough to be all about NKOTB and still young enough to be all about *NSYNC.
Boybands aside (gasp!) there is one thing about this micro generation that I have seen, and that's we believe that 1990 was twenty years ago. For some strange reason other generations don't agree. I mean, honestly, it's like the 2010's just didn't happen for us. I forget all about them. It's not like it's been over twenty years since blink-182 released "What's My Age Again?" and the thought of being 23 was kind of a laugh. Can it?
All this to say that I find it very hard to believe that I am even remotely close to retirement. I mean, I'm still a young adult....at least mentally.
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