u/Certain_Hold_3730

Visiting in less than a month so I need to book soon but I am torn between the two. I am a big Jurassic Park fan but my partner might enjoy the UTV tour more. We are both in our late twenties but I don’t know how to ride a bike so that’s not an option. I really appreciate your feedback. Thank you!

Let me start off by saying that I love my parents, and I genuinely believe they are doing the best they can. But there are moments when I feel so frustrated that I want to completely distance myself from them.
On paper, I’m the picture-perfect only child from a picture-perfect family. In reality, my parents have always had problems, and sometimes I genuinely wonder how these two people ever got married in the first place. If I had a time machine, there are days when I think I would go back and prevent it from happening.
Now that I’m in the wedding-planning phase of my life, all of these feelings are resurfacing. I’m realizing how exhausting it is to feel like I don’t have people I can truly rely on, especially my parents. I became extremely independent at a young age. I traveled on my own, earned scholarships, paid for my own things, figured things out by myself, and did all the things that supposedly “made my parents proud.” Being independent became such a normal part of my life that I rarely questioned it.
What triggered my current spiral is something that probably sounds trivial: my engagement photos and videos. My engagement party was a year ago, and the photographer who documented it has been delaying giving me the photos and videos ever since. It has now been an entire year, and he is barely responsive. Because I’m not currently in the country, there’s only so much I can do from here. I’ve repeatedly asked my mom to speak to him and follow up, but nothing has really been done.
The frustrating part is that I already know my mom struggles with situations like this, so part of me feels like I shouldn’t have expected anything different. At the same time, I don’t feel like I can ask my dad for help either. He would probably get the photos and videos somehow, but I also know there’s a good chance he would make things difficult for my mom in the process. So even when there technically *is* someone I could turn to, asking for help comes with consequences that I then have to worry about.
I know the engagement photos are a relatively small example, and I recognize that I am blessed and privileged in many ways. But I think this situation represents something much bigger for me. It’s exhausting to constantly feel like I can’t rely on anyone. Sometimes I don’t even know whether I’m being too harsh on my parents or whether I’m simply tired of always having to be the capable one.
And the complicated part is that I rarely tell them how much these things affect me. I don’t want to stress them out, hurt them, or make them feel like they were bad parents. I love them, and I know they love me. But sometimes loving them while also carrying the frustration, disappointment, and responsibility of constantly figuring everything out on my own feels incredibly heavy.

Let me start off by saying that I love my parents, and I genuinely believe they are doing the best they can. But there are moments when I feel so frustrated that I want to completely distance myself from them.
On paper, I’m the picture-perfect only child from a picture-perfect family. In reality, my parents have always had problems, and sometimes I genuinely wonder how these two people ever got married in the first place. If I had a time machine, there are days when I think I would go back and prevent it from happening.
Now that I’m in the wedding-planning phase of my life, all of these feelings are resurfacing. I’m realizing how exhausting it is to feel like I don’t have people I can truly rely on, especially my parents. I became extremely independent at a young age. I traveled on my own, earned scholarships, paid for my own things, figured things out by myself, and did all the things that supposedly “made my parents proud.” Being independent became such a normal part of my life that I rarely questioned it.
What triggered my current spiral is something that probably sounds trivial: my engagement photos and videos. My engagement party was a year ago, and the photographer who documented it has been delaying giving me the photos and videos ever since. It has now been an entire year, and he is barely responsive. Because I’m not currently in the country, there’s only so much I can do from here. I’ve repeatedly asked my mom to speak to him and follow up, but nothing has really been done.
The frustrating part is that I already know my mom struggles with situations like this, so part of me feels like I shouldn’t have expected anything different. At the same time, I don’t feel like I can ask my dad for help either. He would probably get the photos and videos somehow, but I also know there’s a good chance he would make things difficult for my mom in the process. So even when there technically is someone I could turn to, asking for help comes with consequences that I then have to worry about.
I know the engagement photos are a relatively small example, and I recognize that I am blessed and privileged in many ways. But I think this situation represents something much bigger for me. It’s exhausting to constantly feel like I can’t rely on anyone. Sometimes I don’t even know whether I’m being too harsh on my parents or whether I’m simply tired of always having to be the capable one.
And the complicated part is that I rarely tell them how much these things affect me. I don’t want to stress them out, hurt them, or make them feel like they were bad parents. I love them, and I know they love me. But sometimes loving them while also carrying the frustration, disappointment, and responsibility of constantly figuring everything out on my own feels incredibly heavy.

Hi! I don’t mean to offend anyone so please if this is not within your range feel free to ignore. We will be in Oahu celebrating our elopement anniversary from September 4-8. I was really hoping we can take some save the date picture and a video for our wedding with family and friends next year. I was planning on renting some horses for the shoot which alone cost around $500s. And I was hoping to keep the entire thing under $1k. So far I haven’t had luck so I might do the shoot myself which is what I usually do while traveling. Any recommendations? Thank you!

I was living with “friend” A as roommates, and we had known each other for a very long time. Throughout that period, A and her friend B made multiple mean remarks about me. I even overheard them making fun of me on more than one occasion. Despite that, I kept my mouth shut to keep the peace and chose to believe it was just part of their personalities rather than something malicious.

Later, when I was going through a difficult time mentally, I hid my Instagram stories from most people, including them. Looking back, I think that may have caused some friction, although I can't say for certain because neither of them ever spoke to me about it, and I hadn't done anything else that would have upset them.

They eventually unfollowed me. At first, when they appeared in my suggested follows, I assumed it was an accident. Then I realized they had also removed me as a follower, which made it clear it wasn't accidental. That was when I understood that something must have been wrong.

Fast forward to when I got engaged: they knew about my engagement and even saw me in person, yet neither of them congratulated me. What makes the situation especially frustrating is that hiding my stories was never personal. I hid them from most people because I was struggling and needed privacy during a difficult period.

I can't help but feel that, if there was an issue, we could have talked it through. It didn't have to end with them cutting me off, especially considering all the hurtful comments and behavior from them that I tolerated over the years without making it into a bigger issue.