My husband was listening to a comedian on a podcast the other day and told me about the bit - basically the guy was saying that he heard about how millennial's aren't buying diamonds and the diamond industry is suffering. It's because we are poor! He said he got like $40 worth of groceries and it was flagged on his account - when he can afford salmon he can think about diamonds.

The sad truth about this is that we are pretty much all poor. There is not enough housing and not enough affordable housing. If we would like to have a two or three bedroom place, too bad! They are all taken up by people who have decided to become roommates because they cannot afford a place of their own. All of the costs in our life have gone up, but our pay has not. 

Frequently I have found that we are not treated with respect as adults. "You're just a kid," or "You're still so young," we are told over and over, and it is reflected in our treatment regardless of our education, our life experience, or our accomplishments. In America respect is a two-way street, not a one-way the-older-you-are-the-more-you-get steamroller. We all grew up with changing technology, more divorce and social change than anyone older than us. We are a smart and adaptable generation who went to college because we were told it would help us find good jobs. It isn't true.

My husband and I were in England getting our Master's degrees when Brexit happened. I wish we could have stayed to participate in the programs they have for new graduates, or that our country had something similar. The UK will place you into a year long paid internship with a company that will either hire you at the end or help you get a job elsewhere. It is heartbreakingly laughable to think of such a thing here. I feel like there is more of a "Shove you out of the nest" mentality in America and so many bright people never make it. 

I am at the point of wanting to leave this country so that my kids can have a better future. The reason so many immigrants came to America in the first place. I want my children to grow up in a country that has health care and education for them, that doesn't have such a toxic media, that doesn't have as much gun violence, that has greener technology and laws. I could go on for hours. When traveling abroad I have always said that I am from California, as America as a whole is embarrassing to be associated with. 

I guess I don't have an ending to this rant. Just that I hope for things to get better as my generation continues to age and have children, and that my sisters generation has it a little better as they enter the workforce in the coming years.

Please don’t make them about me. I don’t really fit in a specific stereotype’s box. I am a creative person in that I read, write, paint, draw, journal, collage, do origami, bake, cook, knit, crochet, do photography and more and I love learning new things all the time. I love horses but I am not a “horse girl.” It really irks me when someone latches on to one thing and says, “Oh, you write?” and I can see in their face all the associates they are attaching to me in their minds:

• Likes cats
• Bad at math
• Drinks alcohol

None of which are true. In fact, the opposite of all of them is true. Which brings me to my next point: being a woman. I do not:

• Wear make-up
• Do my nails
• Like to dance
• Like the color pink
• Wear high heels
• Like cats!
• Like yogurt

​Speaking of yogurt, there are a lot of foods I don’t like. I am a picky, but pretty healthy eater. I am vegetarian, mostly dairy free, and I have celiac disease and Type 1 diabetes. Gluten Free Assumptions are the worst. Sometimes I have the patience to have a teaching moment with a waitress: “Actually it isn’t true that you have NOTHING gluten free on your menu, if you could please go ask the chef for me if this dish has soy sauce or flour in it that’s all I need to know.” Sometimes I just leave. I have had juvenile onset Type 1 diabetes since I was about 13. It is not “the fat kind” of diabetes, it is the “my immune system destroyed my own pancreas” kind.
 
But my mother-load of annoyance, the main thing my husband told me to vent about: I don’t like shopping for clothes. My problem is that companies have decided that women like to shop, so they make a bunch of weird things in weird sizes so that women have to spend more time shopping to find something they like. A guy can get S M L XL etc for the top half of his body and specific measurements for his pants. I wish life was that easy. Women come in all sizes! I have friends who have to shop in the children’s department while my long legs and arms stick out far beyond most pants and long sleeves. A shirt can not fit because it is not long enough, it is too long, it is too small or too large for my boobs, it is too small for my shoulders, it comes up too high on my neck, the list goes on. And that’s not even including all the weird, itchy, ugly, you name it fabrics that someone must wear, or they wouldn’t have made hundreds of them. I hate the buy a few things get more things free deals that add up to like 5 items – there aren’t enough things in your entire store that fit me! How could I ever find 5 items?!
 
When I have to go shopping alone I spend most of my time making faces of varying levels of disgust and incredulity and trying not to appear as if I am talking to myself. Sometimes I get too discouraged to continue after the third fitting room trip with nothing fitting right. When I go shopping with someone else, it’s more of a “touch how gross this is” and holding up ugly clothes just to see the look on their face. My husband get annoyed by this, as my amusement doesn’t outweigh the time wasted when I don’t successfully find anything.