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Sometimes, the people around me will complain about rich students. Basically, kids that never had to work in order to get where they are, which is college. The assumption is always that their parents paved the way for them. While I was in Japanese class today, I realized that Huan-san, my partner and pretty nice guy, probably had well off parents. Afterall, he is studying abroad and he's going to study here for his entire degree.

It made me realize that even though he was well off, I didn't hate him for that. And it makes me wonder about what makes people dislike others who have had advantages, such as having wealthy parents, which isn't even in their control. No one chooses their parents and everyone knows that. Yet, for some reason, a lot of people want to hate 'privileged' kids, myself included.

Sometimes, Elaine will grumble about how she doesn't have wealthy parents and it isn't easy for her to go to college. So, she holds it against other people who's lives are easier. I'll agree with her slightly, mostly because you overhear people who failed, completely failed, a class, and those two types of people often coincide. (I think I should note here that I think failing is probably the worst thing a person could ever do academically. I've never failed a class, and if I did, it would be a terrific failure on me. I would hold it over my head for a long time. It's complete irresponsibility. The complete opposite of what I want to be.)

Some of the kids around here don't care at all about the fact that their education is free and they're taking all of this for granted. And I think it's those kinds of people that we're holding it against. It just so happens that a lot of the wealthy parent-students are people like that. It's just the result of growing up that way. What I realized with Huan-san is that he's not really like that. Despite having rich parents, he still works very hard. I mean, he has to, doesn't he? He's pursuing a high level education in a foreign country.

And I like him for that. He isn't snobby, he doesn't fail out of classes, and he's working his a** off. I like him for that, and the fact that his parents are well off doesn't even bother me.

I think for a lot of you, this might be self evident. And it is. "Judging someone by how much money their parents have is like judging them by the color of their skin." I completely agree. But these are the things that the poorer college students hold against other students. They resent people who have had easier lives, because they think their lives have been harder.

Sometimes, which I do foolishly, I'll make an assumption that if a person grew up poor, or maybe kind of obviously isn't a "rich kid", I'l assume we can get along or they're closer to the type of person I like. Because I don't consider myself privileged, I usually don't gravitate to those that privileged. It's for a number of reasons, right, the primary one being that a lot of them are nothing like me. I don't think I'm the type to be like "Oh, your parents are rich, we can't be friends." I don't ever really care about that kind of thing. It's just there are certain people who obviously don't have a care in the world, including school, and their social lives center around partying and going to bars. Hopefully, you know the type I'm talking about. And hopefully, you know that in university communities, the people that are like that are frequently people of privilege.

But like I said, to make an assumption about someone like that is stupid. I've met plenty of poor kids that I don't get along with (in my life, the people who've been into hard drugs have also been poor). I should know by now that getting along with someone isn't determined by anything like how easy life has been for them.

I think what it comes down to is that I want to be around people who are like me. And what I'm like on the surface is- poor with good grades.

Like in an earlier post, I talked about how I pursue people with good grades in hopes that they're like me, even though they frequently aren't.

And that's how it is here. I pursue people with lower backgrounds, because I hope they'll be like me.

And they aren't. They almost never are. The people I get along with are completely variable.

I imagine a lot of you will think I'm silly for realizing this now, but I'm just developing, you know? It's good, because while I was at Platt I realized a lot of things about how I work and do things (like my issue with ethnicity), and now I'm moving beyond myself, into how I handle and perceive the people around me.

I hope you, too, realize something about yourself soon.