Don't let anyone put you into a mold you don't fit
I originally started this blog because I realized I have so many thoughts that a simple tweet can't hold (threads get old after a while). This topic has been the number one thing I've wanted to talk about but haven't really had the guts to do it... until now.
I am a 35-year-old white woman living in Manhattan. I start by saying this because I feel like it creates a certain imagine in people's heads. However, I guarantee that I do not fit into whatever you've created in your mind. Allow me to explain...
I grew up fairly normally for a suburban kid in southeastern Massachusetts in the late 80s/early 90s. My dad made good money, but we weren't rich. We took a couple trips to Disney that stand out in my brain, but nothing overly exuberant. My siblings and I were all involved in various activities and went to summer camp. Everything was pretty standard until about the age of 9. When my parents got divorced and my dad moved out, things very slowly began to change. My sister took care of me, all the extra activities (anything that cost money) stopped, and things began to decline.
I'm going to skip over the majority of the teenage years because that's a post for another day. However, when I was 12 my dad moved to Europe. He spent 3 years in England and the remaining in Luxembourg. I went to visit him 3 times as a teenager. This is an important note to make (which I'll come back to). After high school, I went to a small women's liberal arts college right outside of Boston... moved back home after graduating.
Now, all these points I've made might paint a certain picture of me in your head. Privileged. Spoiled. Take your pick. I've had the "you've traveled so much" thing thrown in my face quite a bit since I was a teenager. The thing people seem to miss though is that... I was visiting my dad. I would go spend a week with him in the summer and then he'd usually come home for a week at Christmas. So 2 weeks out of the year I got to spend with my dad... 2 weeks. If my dad lived in California, I would have gone west for that 1 week a summer.
That small liberal arts school I went to? I'm still paying off my loans on that and I graduated in 2007. You do the math.
You might say, "But Danielle, you live in Manhattan and you go to shows ALL THE TIME." Yes... this is true. And while I do buy full-price tickets to shows occasionally, I also utilize rush and lottery and other ways to obtain cheaper tickets. I also miss out on a lot of things because I simply don't have the money to spare (zoom in on my empty wallet).
I say all of this because I wanted to break the mold that people have put me into. I am not some rich white woman living the dream. I don't even know what that looks like. I'm the person that has lived paycheck to paycheck for my entire adult life... and sometimes the day after payday means $10 in the back account. I'm the person that, at one point, lived on $1 a day because she was getting $127 a month for unemployment and still had bills to pay. I'm the person who tries to make the most of what she has because she knows how bad things can get. I'm the person who has been in severe debt, out of debt, and back again more times than I can count.
People are not always what we think they are. I don't judge others before getting to know them and I would hope people would do the same for me. If you think I'm something I'm not, all you have to do is ask. I'd be happy to clear up any misconception you might have. In case you haven't noticed, I'm a fairly open and honest person.
-Danielle
I am a 35-year-old white woman living in Manhattan. I start by saying this because I feel like it creates a certain imagine in people's heads. However, I guarantee that I do not fit into whatever you've created in your mind. Allow me to explain...
I grew up fairly normally for a suburban kid in southeastern Massachusetts in the late 80s/early 90s. My dad made good money, but we weren't rich. We took a couple trips to Disney that stand out in my brain, but nothing overly exuberant. My siblings and I were all involved in various activities and went to summer camp. Everything was pretty standard until about the age of 9. When my parents got divorced and my dad moved out, things very slowly began to change. My sister took care of me, all the extra activities (anything that cost money) stopped, and things began to decline.
I'm going to skip over the majority of the teenage years because that's a post for another day. However, when I was 12 my dad moved to Europe. He spent 3 years in England and the remaining in Luxembourg. I went to visit him 3 times as a teenager. This is an important note to make (which I'll come back to). After high school, I went to a small women's liberal arts college right outside of Boston... moved back home after graduating.
Now, all these points I've made might paint a certain picture of me in your head. Privileged. Spoiled. Take your pick. I've had the "you've traveled so much" thing thrown in my face quite a bit since I was a teenager. The thing people seem to miss though is that... I was visiting my dad. I would go spend a week with him in the summer and then he'd usually come home for a week at Christmas. So 2 weeks out of the year I got to spend with my dad... 2 weeks. If my dad lived in California, I would have gone west for that 1 week a summer.
That small liberal arts school I went to? I'm still paying off my loans on that and I graduated in 2007. You do the math.
You might say, "But Danielle, you live in Manhattan and you go to shows ALL THE TIME." Yes... this is true. And while I do buy full-price tickets to shows occasionally, I also utilize rush and lottery and other ways to obtain cheaper tickets. I also miss out on a lot of things because I simply don't have the money to spare (zoom in on my empty wallet).
I say all of this because I wanted to break the mold that people have put me into. I am not some rich white woman living the dream. I don't even know what that looks like. I'm the person that has lived paycheck to paycheck for my entire adult life... and sometimes the day after payday means $10 in the back account. I'm the person that, at one point, lived on $1 a day because she was getting $127 a month for unemployment and still had bills to pay. I'm the person who tries to make the most of what she has because she knows how bad things can get. I'm the person who has been in severe debt, out of debt, and back again more times than I can count.
People are not always what we think they are. I don't judge others before getting to know them and I would hope people would do the same for me. If you think I'm something I'm not, all you have to do is ask. I'd be happy to clear up any misconception you might have. In case you haven't noticed, I'm a fairly open and honest person.
-Danielle
