Hmm, well looks like it was a typo of ‘polycule’. But yeah most my social circle was people I was romantically or sexually involved with, I did also lose a couple of friends though too. It’s been a little over a year at this point and honestly I have not recovered from it. I lost four relationships that were 2-3 years each, a couple going on a year, one that was a few months but incredibly moving for me, and then the marriage was nearly 13 years; all of them broke up with me basically one after the other over the course of a couple months. I feel like I’ve been emotionally hollowed out and while I’ve always been tired of this country I now also feel tired of the people here

This is why even if I think something is 100% legit, if a place calls me asking for anything I tell them I have to check on it and call back. Then I’ll call their known public number and go through that way. I’ve avoided a couple scam situations like this

Unfortunately I don’t think it is going to die out, I think it will need to be rooted out at the cost of lives. The feeling safe part is important but I’ve been living my true self a while now. I make an active effort to not pass too well so that other trans people who feel they can’t show themselves can see me and know there are others around. That was important for me early on so I want to provide that. Has led to some less than stellar interactions though even in Seattle…

I was actually just starting to root here, for the first time in my life I felt like I could settle in somewhere. Then my polycyle imploded, lost most my friends, divorce, job is getting worse every day. Leaving the US has always been a dream of mine but I felt tied here most the time. Losing my entire social circle created a convenient opening

Depending where I may get accepted, I’m likely to end up in Umeå, Boden, or Skellefteå. So just a bit further north than Malmö 😅 I appreciate the offer though

I have to line up a job before I graduate because I don’t qualify for like a “just graduated give me some time to settle” visa, so that may be difficult. I don’t really know if the student visa is hard to get. I need to be accepted to school first then I can use that to make my visa application, so the timing is going to be pretty rushed. I’m going to have to set up moving and living, basically be in standstill for a bit waiting to see if I can pull the trigger, then hope the visa clears

I’ve got enough tech experience I probably could have. I’m going back to school though out of savings and going to get on a student visa

Thank you! I’m so excited to make my way. Just hoping the US holds out long enough for me to make the move I’m definitely a bit scared with how fast it’s all happening here

Lots of reasons over the years but the most immediately pressing is I’m trans so if the US starts black bagging people I’m high up there on the list

Well I’m going back to school there first to get an actual degree. After that though yeah I’m expecting to make around 1/3 what I am currently, between switching countries and going from automation engineering to level design. I think it’ll be a worthwhile trade-off too

Best of luck let us know if you made it ❤️

I’m doing my part fleeing to Sweden, granted I’m a programmer and game dev so not a scientist. I’m done letting the US profit off my skills though

Well I was already a bit on edge about mtg but thinking just let them do their thing and I’ll peacefully ignore it. But SpongeBob… I might sell my cards I could use the funds anyway :/

I’m leaving the country in a few months and my savings tanking is a legitimate concern. I don’t know a lot about finances. Any ideas how I can squirrel away a bunch of it in case the US goes full sideways before I can leave and move everything over to my target country’s money?

Am trans, crippling anxiety of having to explain my voice to people. In person I can at least hide behind my titties and give people who accidentally misgender me the eyebrow raise

I used to work for a university trying to modernize how people got student and financial data. Over half my work was playing politics rooting out people who refused to change and going above their head. We had one guy who didn’t want to update a script on his end to include the bare minimum amount of ‘security’: a hard coded plain text password. It took me months and I had to go to his office to update his script and he complained about it the entire four minutes it took