Via Abigail who saw this meme at The Noble Savage. She found it at What If No One’s Watching, who got it from Mostly True Tales.
The original authors of this exercise are Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill,
Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, and Stacy Ploskonka at
Illinois State University. If you participate in this blog game, they
ask that you PLEASE acknowledge their copyright.
Bold the true statements. You can explain further if you wish.
1. Father went to college
No thanks to the military. His 12 years of service was too long to qualify for the GI Bill.
2. Father finished college
3. Mother went to college
4. Mother finished college
5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor.
6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers.
7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home.
8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
9. Were read children’s books by a parent
10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively
13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs
15. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
My maternal granparents put $10,000 towards the cause. The deal going in was 4 years undergraduate tuition and room/board at a state school and anything above and beyond that (private school, 10 year plan, grad school) was on me. They ended up repaying the $3,000 in loans I took out to go to a private school my freshman year and I ended up going 4.25 years but they still covered it. I was responsible for all discretionary funds.
16. Went to a private high school
17. Went to summer camp
18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18
19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels
Some did. Most didn't.
20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
Mom worked at our church's thrift store during most of my high school years. The good news is it got me a heck of a lot nicer clothes (often still with tags) than I would have had otherwise. The bad news was that it turned me on to good brand names.
21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
Three people with three jobs and one of them on the high school debate team got too challenging.
22. There was original art in your house when you were a child
Pieces done by my grandfather, after suffering from a stroke.
23. You and your family lived in a single-family house
25. You had your own room as a child
26.
You had a phone in your room before you turned 18
It was my 16th Birthday present. I believe I still have that phone in a box somewhere in case we ever decide to go back to land lines.
27. Participated in a SAT/ACT prep course
28. Had your own TV in your room in high school
29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in high school or college
30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
31. Went on a cruise with your family
32. Went on more than one cruise with your family
33. Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up
34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family
I've seen this meme floating around the internets for a while now. It's always tagged with something about how lucky you were, or how advantaged you were growing up. And it's so one-dimensional in that regard it makes me cringe.
My father grew up dirt poor in the backwoods of Wisconsin. He joined the military the instant he could to hightail it out of town and busted his ass to make a good life for himself and his family. He is the embodiment of the pull yourself up by the bootstraps anyone can do it American Dream. In large part things were not handed to me growing up, I earned them. Yes, I had a car in high school. After 4 years of using suburban public transportation to get myself around, and a summer of frequently walking the 2 miles to work because both of my parents were also working and had the cars my parents bought me a $1,400 car.
Am I disadvantaged or unlucky because my mother never attended college? My mother had the opportunity to attend college, free of charge, but it was Missouri in 1955 and girls didn't commonly go off to study journalism in those days. Because of that my Mom has always embraced my independent nature and helped push me to take advantage of every opportunity presented to me. And because no one in my family had ever graduated from college it was a priority to my parents that I get a college degree. At an in-state school.
Yes, I am lucky and I am advantaged. Not because of any of these THINGS my parents provided to me, but because of the lessons they taught me about life along the way.
