Reply #220: I can't speak for the rest of DU. [View All]

[LWolf]

I'm white. Mostly.

I'm female. I'm 49.

I come from the working class. My father quit school in 8th grade. He was a truck driver. My mother learned how to type in high school, and was a secretary for the decades until she retired. She was a single working mom who did not receive child support.

I was the first known person on either side of my family to go to college.

True to my background, I got married and had 2 kids first. Then I attended night school for 12 years to finish my AA, as a divorced single mom who worked during the day, and waitressed some evenings and weekends, and did not receive child support.

I finished my BA plus another 40 units when I was 34, and went to work to pay the student loans.

I cashed in my retirement to support my kids and myself while I did student teaching. When I got my teaching job, I didn't finish the last 3 units for my Master's, because I was worried about the time invested by new teachers in mastering the job, and about all those student loans.

I was naive. I didn't realize that I couldn't go back and finish that Masters at any time. A decade later, when I paid off the last of the loans and wanted to go back, I found out that none of the units are "new" enough, and I have to start over. Which I can't afford to do.

I'm still divorced. I raised my kids without help, and I bankrupted my own finances to rescue my grandson. I'd be in better shape now if I hadn't, but it was worth it.

I have been homeless. I have lived for a week or more on nothing but rice or lentils. I have been without transportation and had to hike 4 miles to and from a bus stop, with baby and diaper bag, to get to a babysitter and then to work.

I don't feel guilty for having my own roof over my head, even if it's a dump. I don't feel guilty for having a job, or a paycheck, or a vehicle to drive. I've worked, I've earned them.

Don't talk to me about "upper middle class," or "bourgeois."