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Jul. 6th, 2007
I never knew I was poor
Jul. 6th, 2007 02:54 pmI never knew I was poor. I grew up in a household that definitely lived below the poverty line, but I didn't know it. It's always a little strange for me to see people who had a lot more than I, and what they consider to be necessities, because most of those things aren't. I find it hard to figure out people who think there's something wrong with shopping at the DI or Goodwill. I keep running into this idea that parents are supposed to pay for their children's college education, that this is what good parents do, and I am baffled. Why? My parents were good parents, and they didn't do that. I did that. I did the paperwork and got the grant money. I earned the scholarships, and when those ran out, I got jobs and worked summers and took semsters off to work more, and paid for myself. And I didn't think I was especially great or wonderful or independant for doing so, that's just what people did, right?
I thought that ramen was a normal part of pretty much everybody's diet, and that only buying things when they were on sale if you didn't absolutely need them was what most people did. I had no idea that most people find it normal to eat out several times a week, eating out is for birthdays and baptisms and other very special occasions, isn't it? And even though now I am not poor at all, (though technically I still live below the poverty line by some definitions of it) I still run into the odd assumptions of people who grew up with plenty and to spare. And the even odder assumptions of people who didn't have plenty, but felt they had to live like they did. And they very often baffle me.
Today I encountered an essay about being poor. I imagine my mother would know a lot about those things. Some of them ring true to me, a bit. I don't think we were quite as hard up as the picture painted there, but we were close. But I never hid in the restroom to avoid letting my friends know I was on free lunch. Being on free lunch was what normal people did, right? I never knew I was poor. And I'm very glad I never knew it. I could have been raised to know I was poor. I could have been fed a diet of bitterness about what we didn't have. But I wasn't. We were too poor, and too practical to waste money on a television, so I wasn' told what I ought to own by the TV, and although I was certainly raised with the idea that every penny needs to be pinched to get the most out of it, I was never raised to be envious of those who didn't have to pinch their pennies.
Yet another thing to thank my parents for.
I thought that ramen was a normal part of pretty much everybody's diet, and that only buying things when they were on sale if you didn't absolutely need them was what most people did. I had no idea that most people find it normal to eat out several times a week, eating out is for birthdays and baptisms and other very special occasions, isn't it? And even though now I am not poor at all, (though technically I still live below the poverty line by some definitions of it) I still run into the odd assumptions of people who grew up with plenty and to spare. And the even odder assumptions of people who didn't have plenty, but felt they had to live like they did. And they very often baffle me.
Today I encountered an essay about being poor. I imagine my mother would know a lot about those things. Some of them ring true to me, a bit. I don't think we were quite as hard up as the picture painted there, but we were close. But I never hid in the restroom to avoid letting my friends know I was on free lunch. Being on free lunch was what normal people did, right? I never knew I was poor. And I'm very glad I never knew it. I could have been raised to know I was poor. I could have been fed a diet of bitterness about what we didn't have. But I wasn't. We were too poor, and too practical to waste money on a television, so I wasn' told what I ought to own by the TV, and although I was certainly raised with the idea that every penny needs to be pinched to get the most out of it, I was never raised to be envious of those who didn't have to pinch their pennies.
Yet another thing to thank my parents for.
Well, today was not as productive as it could have been. I'm working on some fox paws and a Windstone PYO commission. Also did just a tiny bit of work on a pony, because you've got to have fun projects too, right? I have the horse suit close to done, and have made a little progress on the panther and the sheep recently, which I hope to get both of those well along their way before I leave on the 18th. Also I finished off a winged fox plush, so that's one thing out of the way, at least.
( Pictures under the cut )
( Pictures under the cut )
