My parents brought me up to be independent and I can't thank them enough. From a young age they taught me to be responsible and often left my sister and I home alone. It wasn't negligent. We lived in a tiny rural town where everyone knew each other and people didn't even lock their doors.

When I was eight years old my classmates spent their summers in front of the TV but I ran my own moderately successful small business (at least for an eight-year-old) and earned my own spending cash. My sister and I were expected to make our own lunches and get to and from school by ourselves. By the time I was a teenager I was the only one in charge of keeping the house clean and doing laundry. I got my first online job at 16 which afforded me spending cash and valuable experience.

Thanks to the freedom an online job brings when I was eighteen and graduated high school I moved by myself to a foreign country. I had friends there but it was the first time I ever lived alone and I only had a very rudimentary understanding of the language. Now I'm 29 and still here. I'm bilingual, continue to work online at a well-respected company in its industry which serves Fortune 500 customers, and live life on my terms.

I make my own schedule and only very rarely am required to work when I don't feel like it. I get to be nocturnal which feels most natural for my body. I get to sleep whenever I want for as long as I want. I live in a nice part of a big city with easy access to great restaurants and bars, get to attend concerts, drink good booze and enjoy great cigars. I'm a minimalist and own very few possessions but still have exactly what I want and need including a sweet-ass gaming laptop with a massive game library. I keep my expenses relatively low while still enjoying myself as much as I want.

I have meaningful male relationships and consider my dad one of my closest friends. I also have a best friend who's my age whom I've known for 11 years and we see each other regularly. I've had three girlfriends in the past and consider them all net-positive experiences, especially the last one two years ago. However, I've always found more fulfillment in my autonomy and so have spent almost all of my adult life single and don't see myself getting a girlfriend again for the far distant future, if ever. I enjoy solitude and freedom too much to give it up, even if I did find a fulfilling relationship with a woman.

When I look at people I went to school with I see them spending their youth settling down and pumping out dependents in the same shitty cities they grew up in whereas I've spent mine learning a new language and culture, visiting interesting locales and discovering new kinds of food. I've lived in six states in two different countries and have visited countless more states meeting interesting people and new ways of life and thinking.

If I drop dead tomorrow at least I know that I broke the mold, followed my dreams and truly explored what the world has to offer. My 30th birthday is coming up in a couple of months and I feel like I've truly accomplished something meaningful with my youth. I'm going to throw myself a bitchin' birthday party with my close friends.

I've had a r/MGTOW and r/childfree philosophy my entire life and am very pleasantly surprised to find others like me. I only discovered this subreddit a couple weeks ago but out of the 800+ subreddits I follow it's easily my favorite. I owe my entire lifestyle and all the amazing experiences therein to treasuring my autonomy above all else.

My long-term plan is to move to Europe and do the same thing all over again. Don't settle for mediocre, gentlemen. You deserve better!