This article is aimed mostly at the youth. It’s a time, long ago, in a Galaxy far, far away, known as 2008. Back then I was 22 and unemployed as a majority of you guys seem to be, according to the internet. I did my job as a student and got the As, took the SATs, would have been pretty much garuntee ivy leagues in my age range. However, much like Obama’s change, the economy was going to tank and change everything. It was bad enough as is seeing jobs hire people with felony wraps being hired, while you worked hard, did your due diligence, flew the straight and narrow and worked towards your goals. Life’s unfair, or so I heard from people in my age all the time, bitching about the position they put themselves into. Where’s my commercial as the old saying goes? Nowhere. They drank, they drugged, they had failed relationships, they got pregnant and spit out a kid with a random and kept bemoaning their life. It’s hard to find a position that you put yourself into as something I’m supposed to understand 100. The other side, sat their ass on the couch and looked for attention on YouTube.

Now, I equally had access to YouTube as everyone did, but I saw no value past hosting on it. Sitting around in my room all day was something I mostly did as a teenager, didn’t sound like a great way to spend my 20s. So for me, I went with EBay. Back in the 80s, the Reganite was recalibrating from a late 1970s recession. 1992 would have as well and I can remember vividly how often my father would talk about the price of gas then vs the price of gas in 1992. He had a job and he would flip things on the side sometimes for extra cash. Maybe it would pan out for me as well? Well around this time, 2008, he was running a non profit that was gifted to him by a clergyman around here, because he had the experience and business acumen. That happened a few years before 2008, but he still kept it up. So since couldn’t find a god damn job, I asked if I could take the mini cola fridge from him. I took it home, cleaned it. Spent a dollar on my debit card, opened a EBay account, and put up my Nintendo DS game collection along with D&D and Whitewolf RPG collection to kickstart this thing. Two positive reviews later and boom, we sold the mini fridge next and it snowballed from there.

I was working on several other things at the time, writing being one of them. However EBay played way better than the writing was. Hence why this website came 3rd after EBay. After was college then Bestinyourgirl.,com. However I was setting things up for that back then.

I worked two hours a week on EBay and enjoyed it. Some days I woke up to $100 dollars. Nice given that it stretched pretty well in a recession world. Remember, recession and inflation are two different things.

I was definitely doing better than my peers and while it wasn’t going to make me rich, at least being able to get what I needed to do was good. I was given near perfect conditions for this too. I was young, not married, no girlfriend, no college debt, no kids, no car, no Obama care payments or other bullshit in my way. This was pretty much the best it was going to get at that point in my life.

My recession was way easier than most others. Money flowed well enough. While there could still be tough times here or there, at least I wasn’t wasting away a druggie that cared about how they had to choose their kids diapers or their next fix and I know you know that trope well, since TikTok used to be filled with the people my age that had “narcolepsy” passed out with a fellow peer of yours in the backseat. horrible things. At this point I was very thankful for the lot I was given in life. I barely spent any of my money on fun things, albeit I did redo my Freddy costume from the 90s in the modern world and bought myself a nice bit of pipe tobacco and maybe the odd cigar.

And I may or may not have listened to this a bit one too many times.

For the most part, I was happy in that. Now a days I have nothing to show for it, cause it didn’t allow for a lavishly decadent lifestyle, but it afforded me the things that truly mattered, such as time with my best friend, time with my family and plenty of guitar playing.

The conditions now, for you, are kind of similar, except for the pesky bullshit of WW3. Too be fair, we both had the war on terror looming back then as well. However you have the negative aspect of inflation, which makes the dollar stretch less. This sucks, but is manageable. You face druggies now using internet sites to fund their fix, while You get yourself ahead for the more important things in life. Fact of the matter I been there, done that and got myself in a decent positioning. While there are things I would do better, life through us all a curveball. I chose not to have kids, given the horrible pool of eligibles. You guys have some good peers and can maybe make something of that with a family. In my middle age, I’m finding the Gen Z family TikTok’s to be cute. At least I’m not a pathetic old man, so I got that going for me.

The moral of the story though, life gives you trials by fire and men and woman who walk the path are forever forged in steel. So keep rocking and don’t let this bullshit get ya down.

Here’s another song I listened too one too many times. Maybe it will serve you well too!