I’m GenX as well and I will straight up admit that my wife and I got lucky, purchased a house in a “distressed” neighborhood in Portland because it was all we could afford, and now, 20 years later, the neighborhood is fully gentrifying and our house and property is worth way more than what we owe on it.

I’m conflicted as to how to feel about it. While on the one hand we very innocently bought the place because it was in a shitty neighborhood and was all we could afford, on the other hand I now know that we were what the urban studies people refer to as “bohemian colonizers,” meaning that without knowing it, we were, by moving into the neighborhood as poor artist types, part of a much longer process of gentrification.

Again, I am of several minds regarding how I feel about the whole thing.

Yeah, it’s so strange that people confuse you with a Kremlin bot when you repeatedly spew the same fucking bullshit talking points as the bots themselves.

Yes, all of them.

Now in my 50s and I guess I don’t really care about anyone’s notions of success and/or failure.

None of that stuff really matters.

What matters is being a good and kind person and building and maintaining a network of connections with people who are similarly good and kind.

When you die, you aren’t going to care about how much money you made or how “successful” you were.

What you’ll care about is your family, whether chosen or biological. You will care about being surrounded by people who love you. Nothing else will matter at all.