Living permanently on a cruise ship seems like a dream of the uber-wealthy. You spend your days lounging on the deck by the pool or touring an exotic location. Nights are spent dancing in the nightclub or enjoying live entertainment. You no longer have to worry about traffic, cooking or laundry. Your life has become all-inclusive as long as you’re on board. At Upworthy, we’ve shared the stories of a handful of people who’ve been able to spend their lives on a permanent cruise because they’ve figured out how to do so affordably. Or, at least, at about the same cost of living on land. Insider featured the fantastic story of Ryan Gutridge, who spends about 300 nights a year living on Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas. He only leaves the ship for a few weeks a year during the holidays. Ryan Gutridge hat 2021 begonnen, auf einem Kreuzfahrtschiff der Royal Caribbean im "Homeoffice" zu arbeiten. https://t.co/uRFeduHG65— Business Insider Leben (@bi_leben) August 10, 2023 Gutridge works in IT as an engineer for a cloud solution provider and can do his full-time job right from the ship. “I do meetings in the morning and afternoons, but I can also go to lunch and socialize or meet people at the gym,” he tells Insider. “I’ve even met people that I stay in contact with and that have come back and cruised on this ship with me multiple times since.” Gutridge says that living and working on a cruise ship has improved his mental health. “Working from home was isolating. I don’t have kids or pets, so it’s easy to become somewhat introverted, but cruising has really helped and made me a lot more social,” he says. So, how does he afford life on a permanent vacation? How does he afford to live on a cruise ship? “I have a spreadsheet that automatically records all my expenses, which helps. I also set a budget every year,” he says. “This year, my base fare budget is about $30,000, and last year when I started really looking at the numbers and evaluating how much base fare I paid to be on a ship for 300 nights, I found it was almost neck-and-neck with what I paid for rent and trash service for an apartment in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.” Currently, the average price for a one-bedroom apartment in Fort Lauderdale is around $2,245 a month, which would cost roughly $27,000 a year. The secret to making it work long term Gutridge believes that the key to living on the ship affordably is loyalty programs. He found he was spending less each year thanks to his loyalty status, even as he spent more time cruising.  “Now, because I cruise so often with Royal Caribbean, I’ve moved up in its loyalty program. My drinks and internet are free. If people are going to do something like what I do, I recommend trying different brands because they all offer something different. But once you commit to one, you should stick to it so you reach those loyalty levels,” he says. When he’s not on the ship, he makes doctor and dentist appointments and spends time with his friends. Then, it’s back on the high seas, where he has a routine. Monday through Friday, he works, eats healthy, and goes to the gym. On the weekends he’ll let loose and have a few drinks. If the ship arrives at a location he enjoys, he’ll take a PTO day from work and go sightseeing. “I have a strong relationship with the crew on this ship,” he says. “It’s become a big family, and I don’t want to rebuild those relationships on another ship, I joke that I have 1,300 roommates.” Eventually, Gutridge wants to get rid of his apartment and sell his car, so his primary residence is a Royal Caribbean ship. This article originally appeared three years ago. It has been updated. The post Man lives on a cruise ship 300 days a year for the same cost as renting in Florida appeared first on Upworthy.

Many kids are seriously struggling in school. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, an estimated 49% of public school students started off the 2022-2023 school year behind in at least one subject. More recent data shows some improvement, with that figure dropping to 44% for the 2023-24 school year, though millions of students remain behind. While there are several factors contributing to this issue, including the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, underfunded schools, and a growing teacher shortage, many educators feel that one majorly overlooked factor is parental involvement, or the lack of it, in their child’s education. A former teacher’s blunt take on parental denial One former teacher bluntly stated that it was parents’ “denial” that’s to blame. Odion, who now works as a flight attendant, made her case in response to another teacher’s TikTok asking parents why they’re unaware that their children are underperforming for their grade level. In the original video, user @qbthedon laments that his 7th grade students still perform at a 4th grade level, and, despite his efforts, those kids still move onto the next grade even though they’re not ready. The worst part is that the parents don’t seem to be aware that their kids are extremely behind. @qbthedon Lets chat!! #fyp #viral #teachertok ♬ original sound – QBSkiiii One dad’s denial that stuck with her for years This lack of awareness and engagement dates back further than the pandemic years, says Odion, who taught Pre-K and Kindergarten in 2013. Case in point: parent-teacher conference nights, where virtually no parent would show up. Odion then recalled one father who did attend with his daughter, called Tia for the story, but would not believe that Tia did not know the full alphabet. “In kindergarten, you have to at least know, I think it was 80% of the 52 letters, as in uppercase and lowercase, and you have to be able to identify at random. So, I’m telling the dad that she barely knows 10 letters. And he’s in denial. ‘Nah, you know, she knows her letters,'” Odion says. @bodacious_bobo #stitch with @QBSkiiii if these children are our future, we should all be terrified ♬ original sound – Odion She then acts out that night, using a makeshift flashcard like she did to test Tia. “I literally said, ‘What letter is this?’” Odion says while holding up the letter “M.” “She said something that’s not it. Put another one down. ‘What letter is this?’ She don’t know it.” Still, the dad insisted that Tia knew her letters. Eventually, he blamed Tia’s older brother, who, despite only being a sixth grader himself, was “supposed to teach her.” “It is not up to a child in elementary school, or middle school, or really any of your older kids, as someone who’s an older child… It is not up to the kids to teach younger kids,” Odion says in the clip. Using another example, Odion states that a fifth grader in her class was reading at a kindergarten level and could only process basic sentences like “I see you” and “I like to see.” In this instance, the students should be held back in order to fully learn the year’s curriculum. But Odion argues that parents fight against it “because they are more concerned about the optics of a child being held back than actually taking care of the child’s needs.” Why holding kids back is not a simple solution While the research shows that holding kids back a grade does improve their academic performance by granting them more time, there are still significant pros and cons to consider. In other words, being held back might not be the best solution for every struggling child. The biggest point Odion seems to be trying to make is that in addition to teachers and administrators, parents need to be more proactive in their child’s education. “Parents, y’all can’t be backseat drivers about your child’s learning. You have to help reinforce it at home. You put a kid in front of that phone or iPad whenever they come home, it better be on YouTube, and it better be learning about letters and sight words. You can’t tell me you can’t read to the kid. It takes 10 minutes to read to the kid. No one is that busy,” she concludes. This article originally appeared two years ago. It has been updated.The post Former teacher gets brutally honest about the ‘denial’ some parents have about their kids’ education appeared first on Upworthy.

At just four years old, Michael Girgis is solidifying his spot as an up-and-coming piano prodigy. While he always had a musical inkling, it wasn’t until September 2025 that he began playing the piano under the guidance of his teacher, Ms. Elena. By December 2025, the Montgomery County, Maryland native was playing in his first piano recital. Since then, the young boy has been stacking up piano awards. (So far, he’s earned four prizes.) “He reads the notes better than he reads the alphabet,” his mother, Yulia Tsaturova, told WJLA-TV. Girgis currently practices piano three times a week for 30 to 45 minutes each session. He also uses a piano pedal extender for a customized fit. “I like playing music. I like playing piano, nothing else. You have to work hard so you’ll get more money,” he told WJLA-TV. Who is Michael Girgis? Girgis was inspired to play the piano after watching his older siblings play. “When I was 18 months old, I watched my older brother and my two sisters playing the piano… and I couldn’t wait for my turn. Everyone said, ‘when you grow up’,” he shared in an Instagram post. In his bio, Girgis also offered his new fans some fun facts about himself. Besides playing the piano, he has a full life as a four-year-old. View this post on Instagram “I enjoy swimming, roller skating, biking, ice skating, and running,” he shared. “I have many friends and love going to birthday parties! I enjoy to visit and explore new places and try new activities.” He added, “two sisters and a brother. And all of them playing piano, too. I love candies and chocolates. My favorite color is blue. I love watching cartoons and my favorite cartoon is Peppa Pig.” Playing at Carnegie Hall Girgis won the 2026 American Protégé International Piano and Strings Competition in March 2026. As a result, he will be playing twice at Carnegie Hall in New York City later this year. He is set to make history as the youngest-ever pianist to perform at the esteemed hall. In July 2025, his fellow piano prodigy, five-year-old Alec Van Khajadourian, made his debut at Carnegie Hall. At the time, he was the youngest pianist to perform there. Girgis is scheduled to play during the American Protégé Winners Recital on May 31, 2026, as well as on July 14, 2026. “It’s something we couldn’t have dreamed of, was hoping, but it’s actually real, so we’re very, very excited about that,” Magdy Girgis, Michael’s father, told WJLA-TV. And his piano teacher, Ms. Elena, saw his potential from the start. “Michael is truly a rising star. His dedication, passion, and artistry shine through every time he sits at the keys,” she shared in a February 2026 Instagram post about her talented student. “It has been a joy to watch him grow, and seeing his hard work recognized on an international stage makes me beyond proud.” The post This 4-year-old piano prodigy started playing just 8 months ago. He’s set to perform at Carnegie Hall. appeared first on Upworthy.

Over the past few years, “estrangement culture” has become a big topic of discussion in therapeutic circles. It explains the increasing normalization of completely cutting off family members and close friends to protect one’s mental health. It’s believed that the growing comfort people have with setting hard boundaries around loved ones has led more people to go no-contact. A recent study by Talkspace for Mental Health Awareness Month found that 38% of Americans went no-contact with a friend or family member last year, completely cutting off communication with them. The poll showed that there is a huge difference between the generations when it comes to going no-contact. Sixty percent of Gen Zers said they cut off contact with a loved one in the last year, compared to just 50% of Millennials, 38% of Gen Xers, and 20% of Baby Boomers.  The reasons why people are becoming estranged from their loved ones The biggest reason people gave for cutting off a loved one is lack of respect (36%), followed by mental health (29%), and being “too negative to be around” (27%). Why is it that so many people are cutting off loved ones? Whitney Goodman, a licensed marriage and family therapist, told NPR that a lot of it has to do with modern technology. “So I have one theory to explain this, and I think that we are so much more connected than we’ve ever been, especially with our family members, using things like social media, texting, email, et cetera, that it’s really difficult to just create distance from your family without setting these hard rules or boundaries with people. You can’t really just, like, move across the country and say, oh, I can’t get home for the holidays,” Goodman said. Going no-contact is a double-edged sword Going no-contact with a loved one is a sure-fire way to protect your mental and physical health if the relationship is abusive. However, it can also be a sign of extreme conflict avoidance in a relationship that can be repaired.  When is it right to go no-contact? “Sometimes, going no contact is the healthiest option when a family member’s behavior is abusive, toxic, or consistently hurtful,” says Mindwell NYC. “If you’ve tried setting boundaries in other ways and the relationship remains harmful, cutting off contact may be necessary for your emotional safety.” @patrickteahanofficial Estranged parents will create petty reasons that their child has gone no contact. I’ve never had a client give shallow or entitled reasons about making the hardest decision they will ever make. A toxic parent needs to appear victimized and will character assassinate their child at all cost to avoid accountability. They can’t not make it to be about petty selfish reasons that just don’t exist. #nocontact ♬ original sound – Patrick Teahan When can relationships be repaired? Carla Shuman, Ph.D., says we should give our loved ones a chance to redeem themselves and focus on the positive aspects of the relationship before cutting things off permanently. “Sometimes, family members regret their previous actions. They apologize, ask forgiveness, and attempt to make amends by changing their behavior toward those whom they have hurt. Or they may not realize the extent to which they have hurt you or others. That may seem hard to understand, but I’ve sat with clients whose family members have cut them off. Sometimes they do become much more aware, and they experience incredible remorse and sadness over their actions. If this is the case, or if they are willing to attempt to change, cutting off the relationship may not be the best next step,” Shuman writes at Psychology Today. The rise in people going no-contact reveals a tricky dichotomy at the heart of our most important relationships when they fracture. If we go no-contact, are we taking the easy way out or protecting ourselves from people who have no desire to change? Conflict is normal in relationships. Is the short-term pain of addressing it worth a lifetime of potential regret? The post Nearly 40% of Americans went no-contact with a loved one last year. Here’s why we’re letting relationships go. appeared first on Upworthy.

There’s a viral trick where, if you ask people to “pretend” to answer a phone, the way they hold their hand will tell you which generation they belong to. Maybe the same can be said for how they react to seeing a paycheck. Mom posts hilarious generational moment on LinkedIn Michelle Boggs, a senior advisor at GoFundMe, recently posted a screenshot of a text from her teenager on the professional networking platform. The teenager, awaiting a payment of $200, opened an envelope and was surprised to find that it did not contain the cash they were expecting—only a note on a piece of paper indicating that $200 was owed. The teenager elaborated: “There was no money just on papers that said my amount.” And that’s when Boggs realized what was really going on: “That is called a check, honey.” Old things are hard. Photo credit: Canva Millennials and Gen X forget just how outdated their upbringing is The post spread far and wide on LinkedIn, with hundreds of likes and dozens of comments. Many people had stories about their own encounters with Gen Zers who were completely baffled by items and activities that were commonplace just a few decades ago, such as: Addressing an envelope: “I facilitated a training with consultants, most of whom were 23 to 25. There was an exercise at the end where you write yourself a letter that gets mailed to you in like five years time. They instructed us to tell people how to address the envelope. I thought it was a joke until the guy next to me did in fact turn to me and say, ‘What do I do here again?'” Saving a file on the computer: “I’ll never forget the day a young one asked me why the save icon looked like that. They’d never seen a floppy disk. I felt my bones creak in the wind.” Calling a landline: “How about when your 15 year old calls her grandmother and gets a busy signal?” Listening to music on a stereo: “We did [a run to the dump] with a 00s stereo system in the car and my eldest said ‘what is this Mom, some kind of music machine?’. To them, music is Alexa or Spotify!” Watching actual TV: “I also recently got rid of cable and I gave them the heads up like ‘hey guys I got rid of cable’ and my son responded ‘what’s cable?'” How the tables have turned While the older generations love getting a good laugh out of younger people not recognizing “fundamental” pieces of technology, the comedy definitely goes both ways. “My favorite moment was when my youngest was in my home office and told me to follow the link to a particular website. I clicked on what I thought I was supposed to click on and he scowled in disgust and said this is why old people get so much malware,” one commenter shared. Millennials and Gen Xers are often totally baffled by Gen Alpha slang, TikTok trends, Kik streamers, looksmaxxing, ChatGPT, and more. It’s only a matter of time until today’s teenagers are impatiently holding their parents’ hands through crypto, VR, or vibe-coding—in fact, it’s already happening. An ancient artifact: The paper check. Photo credit: Todd Lappin/Flickr In true LinkedIn fashion, Boggs pulled a lesson from the humorous story, one that really does resonate. “Honestly, teens will keep you humble and if you’re paying attention, they’ll also keep you sharp,” she wrote. “[If something] feels slow, clunky, or outdated we’re not just behind, we’re invisible to the next generation. They’re not learning our systems. We need to learn theirs.” She’s right. Walden University estimates paper checks will be completely extinct any day now, replaced by direct deposit, Venmo, and other “frictionless” options. For the business professionals of LinkedIn, the takeaway is obvious. But all Millennials and Gen Xers need to remember that rotary phones and VCRs aren’t coming back anytime soon. Teaching younger generations about a rapidly aging way of life is probably less urgent than learning ourselves where things are heading. The post Teen confused by paper with ‘$200’ written on it. The answer was hilariously simple. appeared first on Upworthy.