Self Story #3: Same but different

Growing up I experienced mild bullying and I feel as though this stemmed specifically because of my perceived “class”. It was often mentioned or made fun of that my family and I were the only house in the whole neighborhood of low income rental units. This banter was never obvious to me until I got older and began to realize some differences myself. From when I can remember until approximately age ten I felt there was never any difference between my friends/ neighbors and I. We all had fun playing at each other’s homes, backyards and at the school park down the block. As I got a bit older I would realize we were indeed a bit different. My parents were the only parents on the street that were still married. My friends would mention this often and they would even ask me things like “do they ever fight?” and “how are they still together?”. I would just giggle and sluff it off. I had a certain friend whose parent would always encourage us to have sleepovers on the weekend and all weekend long. We thought this was awesome. However this parent needed that friend to stay at our house so they could go work 2 out of 4 jobs but was too ashamed to say so to my parents even though they were aware. Sometimes I was confused when my friends parents wouldn’t allow seconds at their dinner table when I would stay for supper, there were no seconds left. Little occurrences like this made me realize that money really does separate us in many ways but only if we let it. Once I became more aware and currently as I grow I become more grateful for everything I have and realize less is sometimes more. I only hope we grow as a community to live without boundaries some times set in place based on the class we are indirectly placed into.