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Oldbiddy's avatar

Gen X oldest daughter here and this is my reality too

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Mere's avatar

💯

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Shelly Stallard's avatar

Yes, me as well. This is every bit of me, through the breakdown and rehab (aka Food Prison) and right to the goddamn itchy tag (seams in my case, WTF are they sewing this shit with) and I just CANNOT right now.

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bluePNWcats's avatar

And now I am sobbing. My sister, I very rarely read something that makes me feel as though someone reached deep into my soul and pulled it out and slapped it in words on the screen. I feel you. I feel ALL of this so fucking hard. I will hold you in my heart and my thoughts, knowing that we are both out there in the world fighting that same old fucking battle yet again. But this time, not alone. Not this time. 😭❤️🫂

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Kari Bentley-Quinn's avatar

😭💕

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Michele Hornish's avatar

I could not love this more. Thank you for putting a voice to what has been in my head all day. Solidarity.

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Hanne Blank Boyd's avatar

It isn’t even my birthday yet and here you are with presents. Thank you.

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Birdie Falling's avatar

"It’s a crew of Cassandras. We have lost friends and lost hair and lost sanity trying to tell people what we saw coming, what we knew would happen."

Thank you for this. We tried. I tried. Starting with 9/11 and the disinformation. Wrote editorials telling other kids look, ya'll, we're not here to hate on immigrants. Studied the patterns. Worked multiple jobs to get ahead of it. Got the scholarships. Went to law school. Worked pro bono. Juggled all the plates while hoping it made an ounce of difference. Did it make a difference? I don't know, but I get the feeling that doesn't matter. It's in us to keep fighting, and I'm pretty sure I've gone rabid.

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RE Garrett's avatar

Thank you. What you say here is so true; this nation and its people are so unfair to women, any woman, all women. One of the most important goals in my life is Don’t Be That Kind Of Man, and I hope I succeed at it at least some of the time. Thank you again, God Bless, Peace Out, and Illegitimati Non Carborundum.

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Amanda D's avatar

I’m glad this post found me; I’m just under 40 rather than in my 40s, but boy does it resonate. Thanks for saying something I didn’t know I needed to hear. 🤘🏼

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Melissa Corrigan, she/her's avatar

I feel every bit of this.

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Kari Bentley-Quinn's avatar

Too many of us do.

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Lund-O-Matic's avatar

The brutal honesty of your writing has brought me to tears. For my pain, the suffering of so many and the loss of a future that never was. I am fallen but I will rise again and I will fight !

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Kari Bentley-Quinn's avatar

Thank you ❤️

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Stephanie Church's avatar

Beautifully written. Right there with you today.

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Cathy Tomkiewicz's avatar

Not limited to millennials: I saw myself in your description. I lived through it decades earlier. I wouldn’t trade my life for my mother’s, though. I was the oldest of 4, two already dead from the results of stinkin’ thinking. I know insanity when I see it, it lives around me (but not in my husband & millennial son) but I will rise daily to defend, support & protect what is right & free. Like you I get the Cassandra admonition. Sometimes I don’t talk. Then I remember that it is important to talk, to share the solidarity of our experience. We are survivors. Shine your light in the darkness until the sun returns.

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Kari Bentley-Quinn's avatar

Yeah I didn’t want to make the post too long and explain all the differences. I know it applies to other generations to a degree, but I do think there’s a uniqueness to our experience because our childhood was analog and adolescence was when the internet first happened, and we became adults just as everything started to fall apart. But I think we share a lot with Gen X.

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