I graduated college and assumed I wasn’t welcome anymore by the fact that growing up it was always made clear that I was allowed to stay as long as I was in school, and that my father and I hadn’t spoken in a few years at that point despite living together (mom was dead by then). Oh also the big binder of my childhood documents that appeared on a table with a note explaining what it was.

I moved in with my then fiancee and her parents in a different state. Got a job closer to home by sheer coincidence about 9 months later right as that relationship was starting to fall apart due to irreconcilable differences.

Wait, touch screen for windshield wipers‽ Fuck that shit. It’s supposed to be a stalk opposite the turn signals because it’s safety critical. What next, touch screen for your turn signals‽

Shorting isn’t just a bet that a stock will fail but also when

Ah 24/7 Walmart, that’s how I bought my first stuff for experimenting with femininity, waiting until 2am and going a town over to ensure nobody I knew saw me…

And to answer your question the wild west internet. There was freedom and rebellion there. A whole new world with every weirdo, freak, and nerd at your fingertips. A place where you weren’t alone until you found a person who could recommend a place, but instead you could just look it up and find out where your kind of freaks were chatting and they’d even tell you if there was a place irl. Ironically I’m noticing a shift back to needing to know a person to find a place, but that place is a discord server more often these days.