Once in awhile, I'll have a night terror that I'm back at university for the first time. Bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and learning for the first time that some kids actually have their whole tuition paid for by their parents.
As someone with oodles of student loan debt I'm still not entirely sure how I'm paying off, it got me thinking about all the other moments from college that made me realize I was the "poor friend" in my friend groups. Like when I asked my friend why everyone was wearing Panda Express logos, only for her to laugh out loud and tell me they were actually $1,000+ Canada Goose coats.
Whether you grew up poor, wealthy, or somewhere in-between, you probably at some point realized you had much less, or much more, privilege than those around you.
Maybe you realized you were the poor friend when your friends asked you the nicest dinner you ever had, and you said Olive Garden with your whole chest. You were confused when your friends thought you were joking.
Or maybe you realized you were *actually* the rich friend after you called your family's lake house "a small cabin," only for your friends to correct you that a small cabin is not 4,700 square feet or worth $2.85 million.
Or perhaps you realized you were the poor friend when you worked two minimum wage jobs every summer to help support your family's bills while your friends spent their summers vacationing and relaxing.
