When, and how did you leave the nest?

Had recently turned 20, was sent a train ticket by older sisters to live and work in Toronto. It was a given that I would leave our tumultuous home-life, just as they did. That left my 12 year old brother back in the nest. I felt badly for our mother though, as she was not the reason any of us chose to leave.

I immediately got a job that wasn't suitable, then another which I didn't like .. then another, which I stayed at for almost 20 years.

I'm still in Toronto (since 1967) .. would not want to live anywhere else.
 
When I was 18, and the Vietnam War was getting going, I could feel the Draft Board breathing down my neck. Being basically a coward, with little desire to be trapped in a jungle with gunfire all around me, I joined the USAF, and left home for good.
 

Left the fall after HS graduation for undergrad. I came back home the summer after my Freshman year and missed my college friends so much that I took summer courses and jobs after that to stay in the college town.

Graduated in 3 1/2 years and headed to the big city (Jackson MS :ROFLMAO: ) for microbiology grad school.
 
I was lucky.

My mother and my stepfather told me I could stay rent free as long as I continued to help with chores, saved my money, and stayed out of trouble.

They also told me that when I left I would not be able to move back in.

When I finally did leave I think it caused some additional strain to their marriage because I was sort of a buffer or diversion for them both.

Anyway, the additional time at home gave me a good debt free start with money in the bank. I thank them both for that.
 
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I was 17 and in my third month of Senior Year in high school. Hubby just home from Basic Training. We had been engaged for a year and knew he would be sent to Viet Nam. Wanted to be married before that happened. As it turned out,Martin Luther King was killed and knowing that there would likely be riots,his unit was kept in the States (National Guard). Our parents were not on board,due to our ages,but finally relented when they heard that we planned on eloping to Idaho,where we could get married at 16 and 18 without a parent signature. We likely would never have had the guts to do that,but it worked. We`ve been laughing the last few months that it took us 54 years to finally run away to Idaho,but here we are LOL!
 
I graduated high school and the next fall started nursing school. Our only expenses were books and uniforms as we worked our way through at the hospital..
Once I graduated and began working I lived at home and paid rent.
I left the day I got married and my mom and dad gave me back every cent I had paid in rent. This along with my savings and the money my hubby had saved made a nice down payment on our first house which was something I much preferred than a big wedding.
 
Don M. said:
When I was 18, and the Vietnam War was getting going, I could feel the Draft Board breathing down my neck. Being basically a coward, with little desire to be trapped in a jungle with gunfire all around me, I joined the USAF, and left home for good.
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Same here. In 1966 at almost age 18, they ended college deferments so I was looking at being drafted and likely carrying an M16 in some mosquito, leach, and poisonous snake infested Mekong Delta swamp listening to buzzing bullets. Thus took USN and USAF tests, scored high, that landed me directly into an electronics maintenance career field where I would be stationed on bases. So parents dropped me off at the Hartford airport and flew to San Antonio for basic training.
 
David777 said:
Same here. In 1966 at almost age 18, they ended college deferments so I was looking at being drafted and likely carrying an M16 in some mosquito, leach, and poisonous snake infested Mekong Delta swamp listening to buzzing bullets. Thus took USN and USAF tests, scored high, that landed me directly into an electronics maintenance career field where I would be stationed on bases. So parents dropped me off at the Hartford airport and flew to San Antonio for basic training.
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Lucky man. Wish I had been as smart as you,But, I wasn't. :(

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Shortly after I graduated college, I got a job in Ohio. My parents (bless them) drove out with me. They left me the car, and I took them to the airport for their trip home.
I watched them get on the plane, saw the plane take off, and watched it until it disappeared. On the drive back from the airport, I said to myself,"Well you are on your own now". I was barely 20 years old, and I never looked back.
Two years later, I was a Field Engineer traveling to Japan, Korea and Okinawa. My parents had a world map to keep track of me.
 
I got married. We'd just graduated high school. My parents and grandparents gave us enough $$ to live on for 3 months, so I had 3 whole months to find work. Found a job at a service station within a week. It was only a few blocks from our apartment, but we used part of the money my folks gave us to buy a cheap car. By the fall, I was also attending college (that's why we needed the car) and we got pregnant. So, I found a higher paying job and a bigger place; a house with a yard. Grant was born the following spring, college got interrupted, I took an even better job, repeat X3, and then she left...my wife did.

And as a single dad, I pretty much stuck with that pattern; took classes, moved to where I could get a better job, repeat.
Through various college courses I earned either a BA degree or a job-related certification or license. I've been a lithographer, a psychiatric technician, a heavy equip operator, a phlebotomist, a CNA, a Residential Care Specialist and then Behavioral Specialist (for the developmentally disabled), and a Search/Retrieve diver (scuba). There's at least a couple more I can't think of right now. Oh! Most recently; a foster parent license, but there's a couple of others too.
 
David777 said:
Same here. In 1966 at almost age 18, they ended college deferments so I was looking at being drafted and likely carrying an M16 in some mosquito, leach, and poisonous snake infested Mekong Delta swamp listening to buzzing bullets. Thus took USN and USAF tests, scored high, that landed me directly into an electronics maintenance career field where I would be stationed on bases. So parents dropped me off at the Hartford airport and flew to San Antonio for basic training.
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About the same here with a little twist. First I was busted for drug possession when 17 and the only way my Dad would let me stay at home was to join the service. So I tried the Air Force and then the Navy, but neither would have me because of the drug conviction. ( I got probabation..and a $2000 fine-my Dad paid ) BUT the Army would. I tested very high and they told me I could have my choice in electronics. The day I went to enlist I backed out, and got thrown out.

Irony

In a about a year from then I was going to get drafted ( my birthday lottery pick for the war was 63...they were taking kids up to like 130 that year! ) so I became a "Concienscious Objector".
 
I went on a European journey with some friends and when we finally landed in Zurich I just stayed and could never go back to living with parents again when I got home a year later, as I was used to doing my own "thing(s)!" We always maintained an excellent, close relationship despite my many adventures.

Prior to this trip I began staying with various friends for lengths of time, so kind of drifted into my own life.

It definitely helped that things were so cheap. I'd fly back & forth to Europe, particularly England for only $100. bucks! Then I just stayed there for a few. I couldn't have done any of this in today's economy.
 
Like some others, my home life was more than a little tense and dysfunctional - I had to get out for my psyche to survive.

Los Angeles rents were low, apartments were plentiful, entry level jobs were common, there were plenty of dirt-cheap colleges and universities in the area and nearly everyone had roommates. We shared costs and pooled resources - one had a fridge, the other had a color TV - that kind of thing.

It wasn't difficult to get enough traction to pay for housing, go to school and/or find a good job. In the early 1970s, Baby Boomer kids "owned" Los Angeles. It was a great time to be young in So Cal.
 
I left the nest after I completed college and really wanted to move out. I got this hole in the wall apartment that my mom was not very pleased about and actually cried and pleaded for me to stay home. My dad was more you need to face life mentality. Grant it also I was 23 years old at the time and I was in the early stages of my transitioning from a Male to a Female. I was determined to make this work and I did somehow.
 
At 17 my home left me.

I had a good home life, no real problems. After finishing high school I got a summer job in Wyoming, and my parents moved to Oregon. Then in the fall I went to college in Utah and never moved home again. Not planned that way at the time, just happened. No regrets, things worked out fine.

Used to joke that my parents sent me out to play and then moved!
 
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