Now that I got to go to a family gathering thing again I'm reminded of the problem that's been in the way for a long time, where there's just no one my age.

I can't relate to pre-adolescent children or people 20+ years older than me, who only talk about things I know nothing about, and because there were no activities except talking I was just on my phone most of the time...

@NovaSquirrel oof. That's basically exactly how my family gatherings have always gone. 😬

Everyone was always just so... unrelatable to the point of being alien - even the folks similar in age to myself by virtue of our interests basically have nothing at all in common.

It... kinda sucks 😅

@Chel For the ones on my mom's side, before they stopped happening, there was usually Smash or other games every year and you could play video games with other people if nothing else.

I honestly would have enjoyed even just board games or something, but it really was just talking and nothing else. I think most of the time I'm able to have legit conversations with people it's tech related but that wouldn't work here. :p

@NovaSquirrel Yeah, something like that would definitely make a lot of things a bit more doable. Mine were always more of the solely conversational variety... I had like, one cousin that was into games and that was just it... lol.

Also didn't help that a lot of my family outside of my parents leans conservative, sooo... yeah. 😅

I hope you don't have to deal with these sorts of gatherings too frequently at least?

@Chel Actually they're very rare now, which is why I was initially excited to go. People live too far away from each other that it's not very easy to do, alongside not having a venue for it.

I deal with conservative family too, and it always made me feel like I had to be very quiet about my life and keep my parents out of it, which meant my family didn't feel like a family and I guess that's why I'm trying to find a place I belong online instead.

@NovaSquirrel that makes sense and is incredibly unfortunate. hopefully your parents aren't so conservative, at least?

Can totally relate with struggling to find a place to belong so to speak... honestly, so far I feel like I've come the closest to this here on Mastodon after countless backfires across all sorts of internet venues. 😅

@Chel My parents especially. My mom is extremely religious to the point where it feels like it's consumed her whole life and identity, and it was all over the place at both houses, making things feel very oppressive. There were all sorts of things like being unable to wear my hair long enough to prevent dysphoria without constantly having people tell me I need to get it cut, and having to keep dysphoria to myself.

Mastodon seems nice though it's got its own issues I suppose.

@NovaSquirrel oh goodness... 😬

I'm sorry that you've had to deal with that. Are you still living with them? :(

And yeah, that seems about right tbh