I can imagine the hysteria you were going through as an 7/8 year old experiencing Y2K. Glad you made it through
Born in '83, I don’t remember anyone bothering with it too much. It was all over the news and such, sure, but I don’t recall anyone I knew caring about it all that much; both adults and children.
I’m 40 now and living through all this crap has definitely taken a toll. I didn’t get into a house until last year, so I missed the cheap housing, and I’ve been significantly affected by most of this. I still live paycheque to paycheque, and I have no significant savings or retirement money put away.
I have had a pretty strange experience in life though, even compared to my peers. I dropped out of HS, then after about 5 years got my highschool equivalency, went to college, did two different two year programs in about 5 years (there’s a story there too, it should have been 3-3.5 years, ended up closer to 5), got into some disappointing jobs, unemployed for a while a couple of times for nontrivial amounts of time each time… it’s been a ride. I’m fairly stable now, though my financial situation is fairly fragile. With the new recession/inflation, it’s causing some stress and worry.
Life. Fucking life.