I'm seriously lucky, to the point it has been a running joke among my friend group!
It doesn't manifest itself as "everytime I gamble, I win", but more subtly. Finding dollar bills on the ground, having unexpected discounts, getting a dream job, ...
20-something English-speaking cis hetero white American male, stable supportive family I keep strong ties with, four-year university STEM degree, gainfully employed at a low-stress job full of people I like that affords a comfortable, reasonably above modest lifestyle, no outstanding debts, no severe health issues or crippling disibilities.
I've certainly won more than my fair share of cosmic lotteries, all things considered.
Only thing I guess I'm missing is a partner, which is entirely due to my own lack of effort. So far sailing solo hasn't bothered me any. But I do occasionally daydream about what I might be missing out on...
I have excellent time sense. I could set a 15min timer on the kitchen microwave, then go into another room. Often I'll get up and walk into the kitchen just as the timer beeps. Useful, but hard to monetise.
Oh, and white privilege.
I'm engaged to my best friend, my future in laws are cool as hell, both my parents are alive and well, and my brothers and I get along really well. I've also got the cutest little nephew and hearing him laugh always makes my day. I might not make a ton of money, but I've got a damn good family and couldn't be more thankful for them
I have relatively high intelligence, have a job that allows me to work at my own pace and combine it with study and other activities, I have good friends and a supportive, caring, active and housewifely partner, my mother is alive and well.
I have known some wonderful people who have helped me to grow into a person I don't entirely hate. Most of the time, I'm depressed, but I feel privileged to know people who remind me of things that are worth fighting for.
I was lucky to have money to invest at the right time when the markets crashed in 2008 and 2020, when stocks could be had at a 90% discount. As a result I was able to pay off my student loans and put a down payment on my residence with the profits, just by being willing to wait a few years for the market to recover.
When I was in grade school we had a self-directed math program called Individually Prescribed Instruction or IPI. In the program you would take a pre-test and based on the results do a set of exercises. Then you took a post-test to close out that section. What I realized is that since the exercises are self directed we had unsupervised access to the exercises and the solutions. When given the pre-tests I would look up examples in the exercises with the solutions to figure out how to do the questions. I then proceeded to speed run the whole IPI curriculum. This gave me a leg up in math. I proceeded to get a 100% on my Algebra regents and just generally crush it in math. Ended up getting a uni degree in math and physics. This opened many doors for me later in life.
Yeah nothing to be proud of but I can't discount how powerful this one is, now that I'm "woke" to it.
Like I have worked for people for years and just not known they were racist or sexist, only for them to let it slip. And then you see behind the mask.
Realising why there are no people of colour in my office, or women with any kind of power. Realising I would not have this job if I was not a white man.
It's not something you actively use, it is just "there."
For example: I applied to a job as a refrigeration technician and during the interview the guy actually fucking said "it's really hard to get clean cut white guys to apply. I don't want some Dominican (literally referring to their Dominican maintenance guy) walking into a store with our logos on."
I had finished a tech school with some other black guys that I know also applied, I got the job and they didn't. :/
Yeah, I guess left-leaning white males are just as underprivileged and oppressed as people of color and women. We should rename it to "conservative white male privilege."
I'm immune to FOMO and feeling the need to be part of the 'in' crowd.
I was one of the first groups of people to adopt the internet as a user, so I and so many others around with me, all saw the Internet become what it became today. And I'm not impressed a single bit with what's become of it. But we can tell you how long some of the bullshit has gone on for.
Ditto. I was told that I am brave, but I just don't care what others think or fitting in. Of course, it's still important to be sociable and there are still some things you still have to conform to (like for example you still need to be hygienic not just for your own good but for others as well), but as long as I am not harming anyone, I don't care about what people say.
Things I didn't choose or earn? Taller than the average woman in my country. Both parents were smart as hell, university professors. Dad who thought women had every right and ability to do any job they wanted, we weren't raised differently based on sex.
White, male privilege and loving parents that supported me in all ways when needed. Seriously, life has been almost on peaceful mode, definitely easy mode.
loving parents that supported me in all ways when needed.
This is the component that I was missing. I have the white male privilege, but I've always had split parents and 2 stepfathers that were always dicks. I had to move out at 18. My friend had the exact opposite situation where he could stay at home as long as he needed to and he spent his time studying towards a computer science degree. I always had to worry about moving and paying rent so I never pursued anything "difficult" or time consuming as I never knew when I'd have to move again so I'm now just a worthless, single, factory worker schmuck living in someone's garage and my friend is happily married working from home making major money from a well known major corporation.
We couldn't possibly have more different outcomes unless our skin color were also different.
I'm sorry you got a rough rub, man. I'm heading in a similar direction (moved out at 17, now late 20s working a dead end job to barely afford bills and halfway trying to go to school) and yeah, shits depressing, especially when you have friends that had similar interests and skills as you that were able to make something out of them (my friend who's floor I slept on the last year of highschool is now a literal rocket scientist).
Just remember, we're never truly worthless! So long as we keep clocking in every day, we have immense value to our employers. And what more could a person ask for.
White man, slightly balanced out by neurodivergence and coming from generational poverty. Outside of that I have a very patient and supportive wife that I'm eternally grateful for. She's the best
Nvm... That's just what my dad says when he goes to the loo...
Yes we have good public facilities, at least where I live. But on the other hand, I do live in one of the richest countries in the world, so would expect it to be good too.
I'm easily satisfied with life. I have a pretty good job and make pretty good money, good friends, and I have a beautiful wife, and that's all I need. I'm not the ambitious type who needs to keep making more and more money. I don't need the fanciest car or designer clothes. I don't want to be famous, and I don't have anything to prove to strangers. That makes it much easier to be happy, I think.
I seem to be pretty good at English, which is definitely a leg up on billions of people.
I’m actively protected, respected, and cared for by my insular community.
I’m skilled with a microphone and can make whole audiences cackle.
These advantages are enough that I needed to be nerfed in some incredibly heinous ways, and yet I still have such an advantage that I’m usually first- or second-ban in the draft.
It’s the default language for international business, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that flips to Mandarin in twenty years, the way things in general are going.
But I’m not gonna lie, I wish I cool read ich_iel and get the humor so bad.
My dad was a union electrician. His medical benefits literally saved my life. You've probably heard how expensive it is to treat type 1 diabetes, well most everything I needed was covered by his benefits, and I did have to deal with a copay at the beginning of the year, but I didn't have anything denied.
I used to have a fair bit of imposter syndrome but now that I've been working with a proper team I've come too accept I have an aptitude for code and logic in general, alongside a fairly good abstract memory.
I'm not the best by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm a little more competent than the average software engineer, enough that it gets noticed.
I also got lucky and scored a job at 17 in the field (with no nepotism involved), not a great one but enough to look good on my resume, and have been working in the industry for just over a decade with no college.
I'm a white man living in the UK that's about as close to life on easy mode as you can get.
I learned quite young to not care about what other people thought of me which has been very useful.
Truly. I think many does not realize the advantages of being a white guy in a 1st world coutry.
This advantage is especially useful when traveling abroad.
I was born in People's Republic of China, so I understand Cantonese, Mandarin, can read many simplified characters, and some traditional characters. Not much tho, I think I only know like up to Grade 1-2 proficiency. But if I go relearn it and perfect it, I could potentially be a translator/interpretor or a diplomat. But nah, I'm too lazy, I'l just stick with English cuz I'm too lazy to learn more Chinese, and also I'm not planning on ever stepping foot in CCP territory again.
But if y'all need some translation, and google translate doesn't work, you can always @ me. 😉
Mostly just keeps people from bugging me (random conversations in waiting rooms). Unfortunately, doesn't seem to work when waiting in queues. Occasionally will be in a conference room working and co-workers will come in to work out their drama and not even realize I've been there the whole time. Petty stuff like that lol.
Having travelled a lot, I feel I was born into what I consider a great country just as it was starting to pull itself out of poverty. Pure chance.
I got a good education and college was essentially free.
I have a lot of kids and work really hard at being a good dad so I am surrounded by love. I am very lucky that I am married twenty years (some better than others) to someone who still loves me and who I still love. Some days that love is all that keeps me going because fuck me I am exhausted haha.
I feel uncomfortable typing all that out but it's a good exercise in thankfulness so thank you.
I've had lots of problems in life (late diagnosed neurodiversity), walked out of jobs, changed careers, gone back to uni three times, and had a series of mental breakdowns. But despite all that, because I had a caring family, I knew that the worst that could happen is I'd have to move back in with my parents, which might be. A bit humiliating but would be easy, comfortable and safe.
This security allowed me to spend two decades fucking up until I got the right diagnosis, medication and a satisfying professional career. I'm extremely conscious that if I'd not had love and support I'd have ended up an unemployed alcoholic, or dead. I have so much respect for people fighting through life on hard mode, but I'm also so glad I happened to get the lucky draw.
Similarly, being a normal looking white guy is an amazing superpower. Although "invisible disabilities" absolutely have their own challenges, the fact that my problems aren't easily spotted means that despite being repeatedly terrible at a wide variety of jobs, and a general screw up, I have gotten every job I've interviewed for, often massively beyond my actual skills and expertise. And it's not just the external appearance, the confidence I grew up with from being white, male, straight passing, and middle class, has meant that people just believe stuff when I say it, and take me seriously even if I don't really know much about whatever we're discussing.
Obviously there's some small amount of individual traits and whole lot of luck (you can still lose a game in easy mode, and sadly I know folks who have) but it so obvious I'm playing with a stacked deck compared with most of the world, that it boggles my mind that people try and deny their 'privilege'.
Though I'm disadvantaged in a lot of ways, I have a really good job with a solid team and a fantastic wage structure. It's also union and wfh. Super lucky and grateful.
It's a good attitude to have, to focus on what you have.
I read a book about a holocaust survivor and how little life was worth in the camps. Now I feel genuinely grateful for a warm bed and no wars around here.
I’m not from a native english speaking country, but my parents taught us siblings english first before we learned the local language. There were some minor issues (i.e. other kids won’t talk/play with us because we couldn’t converse well), but it paid off in the long run because we are generally more fluent than the average person from our country, and we have neutral accents when speaking english. It helped a lot working in the corporate world.
A really good immune system. I get a cold maybe once every two years and they only last for about three days. I also don't get fevers (nobody knows why), which I know is kinda paradoxical but my immune system somehow is really good at dealing with infections despite this.
Same. My partner calls me a fortress. She is frequently coming down with colds, like once a year at least. And covid twice. Meanwhile, I haven't got noticeably sick since the first lockdowns.
Hope that doesn't just mean I'm contagious af. I keep testing negative on the RATs anyway
A lot of people saying white + male, I'm not white but I'm light skinned in a country where colourism is a social plague, random people literally call me "whitey" and "blondy" despite me literally having a black mother, when I tell them I'm not white they reply "yes, you are", and I'm like "OK, mfer, apparently you know better than me to what ethnic group I belong". Can't say I haven't benefited from it, the police has almost never given me shit (they did once to be exact). I'm also a heterosexual cis man, and even tho I was born and raised in the poorest district of a big city my father always told me to cultivate my intellect, so I learned multiple languages (English being one of those), went to community college, taught myself software development, etc. I didn't have the biggest head start in life, but compared to my friends in the hood, and women and immigrants across the whole country I simply cannot complain.
I'm HFA, so sometimes lack of empathy, sometimes better understanding of things in general, a little bit like "the good doctor", can be rather strange to neurotypical, but it often does the job
I've experienced both extremes of fiscal class: inherited wealth and opportunity as well as prison and homelessness. It's a double edged sword, a great curse and advantage concurrently.
My mom is absolutely terrified of heights, to the point where she can't stand on a chair without someone holding it. On tables isn't happening. Ever.
But she's perfectly fine with flying, and does so at least a couple of times per year. I even offered to take her flying in a very small aircraft a while back, and she had no problem with the idea.
Everything higher than the second floor of a building is a big nope to me. My family made me go on holidays via airplane back when I was a wee child and I kept screaming for the entire duration of both flights. They never tried that shite ever again. I mean, what did they expect, really, knowing damn well about my severe anxiety issues? Even today I'd never set foot on any kind of aircraft, even with knockout medication and a million Dollars in return. Just no. I do not belong in the sky. I need solid ground or water under my feet. Interestingly enough it's cool for me to go hiking in the mountains. The mountains are solid and therefore they are my friends. If I fall down, that's on me then.