I feel the same way. Im 1 phase removed, but have been very lucky in dodging them too.
01 i was in high school, 08 i was in college with minimal expenses. I was paying $975 per quarter for room and board including 9 prepare meals a week and had enough school ships that my quarterly tuition was also under $1000, coupled with an engineering coop 1/2 the year, i came out financially ahead.
Covid i was a salaried essential worker who had to work 3 days a week but still got paid full salary. That made the lack of available child care bearable. I also had a house that i purchased with 3.25% mortgage.
This next one im feeling already. I moved for my wifes job this year, so that new mortgage rate sucks
A lot of people have never had the flu? Feels like everyones had it in the last couple of years at least. My office has been ravaged by it, as well as all our local school systems. People down for a week, or more.
My first proper flu was about 2017 and it was miserable, but i cant help but wonder if i had it more when i was younger and kicked it without noticing. One of my kids has had it twice (confirmed via dr tests) and has shown little more than an ear ache and a grumpy attitude. I used to test postive for strep without symptoms, but got tested because my brother had it.
Like you were saying, these hit people different, and even proper influenze a/b can be mild to certain people