Yup. My grandparents had mortgages for one reason: the GI bill. My parents bought their first house in their thirties. Some people my age have houses through programs like FHA, but most of us won't have houses until we're in our thirties.

The only person I've encountered who had parents pay the downpayment was extremely wealthy (i.e. parents already owned multiple houses). I think that's actually very rare these days.

Thank you, thank you, and thank you. Mr. Irisfarm and I come from different socio-economic backgrounds (me: working class, small city, him: upper middle-class, huge city). My mother was very class conscious and desperately wanted to be perceived as middle class. I now live in a solidly middle-class neighborhood in a…

This seems really unfair. She describes choosing soup over chicken wings. Unless it's, say, melted cheese and bacon grease soup, she has, more than likely, chosen the option that provides her with better nutrition than the vegetable and vitamin-less grease and salt fest that is a plate of wings. And so what if she…

Oh, OK. Thanks for clearing that up for me. You know, if only had known that those 35 pounds I gained from steroid treatments were a choice I had made, I would not be overweight today! Shoot, if only I could go back in time and through sheer force of willpower just chose not to gain any of that weight.

Same here. That title irked the heck out of me. I sometimes have dreams about running and that makes me feel a little sorry for myself every now and then. I am able to do weightlifting with some modifications and I can do some low-impact cardio, but I often feel like everyone else is running a half marathon and just…

I used to run and LOVED it, but thanks to a herniated disc, I not among the "literally anyone" who can be a runner. Four different doctors have told me I can never run again. I do other stuff now, but with modifications to avoid further back injury. But no running.