Recently, we asked the people of the BuzzFeed Community who'd grown up rich to share their "rude awakenings." Here's what they revealed:
1. "In college, my mom sent someone to deliver organic vegetarian groceries to me every week. My friends and roommates were living off instant ramen, Easy Mac, and grilled cheeses. I'd never even heard of Easy Mac and god help me when I saw a 'Kraft Single' and Wonder Bread. Obviously, I didn't want my friends eating any of that stuff, so I'd cook for everyone because I always had more than I could use. One day, one of my girls asked me where I learned to cook. I just said, 'Oh, my nanny was from Italy.' There was a moment of awkward silence and I felt kind of embarrassed, but it actually opened up some important conversations I still value to this day."
—Anonymous
2. "I arrived at a progressive university in the UK after having spent five years at a very exclusive boarding school. It was the first time I met people who hadn’t voted conservative, or who weren’t automatically in favor of conservative politics. I had never thought much about politics until then. But I started to realize that even though we didn’t discuss politics or wider society much at the boarding school, we had all somehow been trained to believe that tax was bad and that anything progressive was bad, and that us kids at that school were somehow deserving and special. It was scary realizing that I had no idea what I was talking about or what I thought, and that my new friends were horrified by the value system I’d been immersed in. Ironically, leaving that expensive school was when I started having to actually learn to think and understand the world for myself."
—Anonymous
3. "Having to work was my rude awakening. My dad told me that as long as I studied he would support me, so after two MBAs, a PhD, and studying five languages, I ran out of options. I was in my forties."
4. "Finances had no effect on where I went to college. I got to choose whatever I wanted! When I got to college, I couldn't believe that people had turned down 'better' schools because of financial aid."
—Anonymous
5. "I grew up with two nannies, private education, and everything I wanted. Sadly, I barely ever got to see my parents due to them being away on business. My childhood friends all lived that way too, so when my social circle expanded, we started talking about problems we had growing up and I realized all I had to say was that I didn't see my parents that often. I looked really arrogant."
—Anonymous
6. "That a million dollar house is not as attainable as it seemed growing up. It seemed easy because everyone had one where I was from. Then when I went to college, I realized not that many people grew up that way."
—Anonymous
7. "When I attended college, I was unaware of how to cleanse myself properly after using the toilet. There was no bidet, and I had never used toilet paper by myself."
—Anonymous
8. "I was a freshman in college. 1,500 miles from home. I phoned our housekeeper to find out how to do laundry for the first time. As if that wasn't bad enough, I went to the dorm laundry room, I put all (and I mean ALL) my laundry in the machine and left. I was beyond shocked when I came back and it was gone. I didn't expect anyone to dry and/or fold it, but I didn't think they would steal everything. I had to go out the next day (in borrowed clothes) and buy an entire new wardrobe. Talk about naive. And trusting."
—Anonymous
9. "At the time, I didn't realize that most people do not graduate a private, 4-year university without a hint of debt to their name. I thought everyone's parents just paid for their college."
—Anonymous
10. "When talking to others (as an adult) about vacationing as a kid to Paris, Egypt, London, and Israel, I learned many people had not even left the country yet."
—Anonymous
11. "When my friend had a panic attack about not being able to make rent. I realized that I'd never had to worry like that since I knew my parents could always bail me out."
—Anonymous
12. "My first rude awakening was when my 16th birthday came and my parents bought me my very own sports car. A couple days later, I heard my friend gossiping about how spoiled I was and that she was 'lucky that her mom gifted her her old Honda.' That's when it hit me that my family was abnormally rich."
—Anonymous
13. "When I would talk about my favorite airlines and expected everyone else to have an opinion."
—Anonymous
14. "When I found out I was the only kid in my entire class with a beach house."
—Anonymous
15. "I didn't have a rude awakening, but I was an equestrian and only knew a couple other people who did it too. Then I realized how expensive it was and that it was not norm."
—Anonymous
16. "When I didn't qualify for financial aid, but everybody I knew did."
—Anonymous
And lastly:
17. "When my parents stopped paying my rent — I was 23."
—Anonymous
Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.