> NONE of my hometown friends are STEM people. That stuff isn't even close to their radars. It took me years in college to get out of a petty criminal mindset and just be a regular person. I still don't feel like I belong amongst "rich" people (aka middle class).
I relate to this a lot. All of my friends were on welfare growing up. My family were poor, but my dad did work a crappy job.
I guess that's what upset me – growing up I never felt privileged at all. I remember growing up there was a kid on my street who's dad was a builder and who's mum worked in a school and I thought they were super rich because they had two cars lmao... It was just kinda annoying to be punished for my dad having a job as a postman, and arguably me having to work two jobs while trying to get a degree is why I didn't do that great at uni. If I had government support or if my parents were richer I wouldn't have been in that position.
> I still don't feel like I belong amongst "rich" people (aka middle class).
This is something I have written endless comments about here. Trying to emulate being middle class today is very hard for me. I don't know if you find this, but middle class people are so polite and so well spoken compared to what I'm used to. They're also very sensitive and have a different sense of humour to what comes naturally to me. That often makes it difficult to fit in. Also trying to talk about my personal life is nearly impossible because middle class people don't have a good understanding of drug abuse and criminality.
Super cool that you broke the cycle and are doing well though man!
I relate to this a lot. All of my friends were on welfare growing up. My family were poor, but my dad did work a crappy job.
I guess that's what upset me – growing up I never felt privileged at all. I remember growing up there was a kid on my street who's dad was a builder and who's mum worked in a school and I thought they were super rich because they had two cars lmao... It was just kinda annoying to be punished for my dad having a job as a postman, and arguably me having to work two jobs while trying to get a degree is why I didn't do that great at uni. If I had government support or if my parents were richer I wouldn't have been in that position.
> I still don't feel like I belong amongst "rich" people (aka middle class).
This is something I have written endless comments about here. Trying to emulate being middle class today is very hard for me. I don't know if you find this, but middle class people are so polite and so well spoken compared to what I'm used to. They're also very sensitive and have a different sense of humour to what comes naturally to me. That often makes it difficult to fit in. Also trying to talk about my personal life is nearly impossible because middle class people don't have a good understanding of drug abuse and criminality.
Super cool that you broke the cycle and are doing well though man!