growing up in a poor shitty down full of assholes, and being smart and driven enough to get myself out of there.

and now i am middle aged and while in my 20s and early 30s people thought what I did was positive, now people I meet hold it against me in the worst way. It's so fucking weird, but I guess as people age they basically revert to being judgemental weirdos who think your family/birthplace is the single determining factor of who you are. the amount of nastiness people direct towards me when they find out how I grew up is shocking and disgusting and vile.

I also went to a famous university and the whiplash you get from how people react to that vs my birthplace is just... well basically it makes you a total misanthrope because people are so awful about it. It's very rare I meet anyone who doesn't give a shit about either of those things about me, and those are the people I actually enjoy interacting with.

personally i thought i lived the american dream, but man other people are very very hostile to you, especially because I guess I went from rags to merely middle class, not riches.