I’m Not Going To Pretend That I’m Poor To Be Accepted By You

I came straight from the Mulberry Sample Sale, big ass shopping bag in tow back to the Gristedes by my West Village Apartment. I get to the checkout and there’s this girl in front of me probably a little older than I am talking to the cashier. The girl says to the cashier “I went in-state to save my parents money for school”. The Cashier then replies “That’s smart”. They then both glare at me with my shopping bag and my Coco Lite snack cakes and Diet Coke as if to say here’s daddy’s little princess wasting money, that little piece of shit. They exchange words and then the girl leaves. I try to be chipper and ask the cashier how her day is and she doesn’t answer me. She just looks down and scans my items not saying a word or even glancing in my direction. I say have a great day, as happily as I can and walk out feeling like a turd.

What the fuck? Could they not be that obvious? I should have stopped at my apartment and put my bags down then if they were going to judge me like that. And I got my purse at a 70% discount so they can fuck off. I am sorry that I was born into great financial circumstances and my father likes to provide for me. I am sorry I don’t have to go to a state school to save my parents money. What do you want from me?

People shouldn’t make others feel bad about their own personal finances. How people spend their money is their own choice. There is a certain amount of tact you should show around people who can’t buy exorbitantly expensive things. But should you classify someone as a person based on how they are showing their wealth, or lack of it? It just seems really petty and makes you look bitter and unhappy with your own life if you are casting nasty glares at college girls in Gristedes because you’re a cashier. What purpose does it serve if all you want to do is reflect your own misery on other people?

Fortunately I grew up with a decent amount of money in a decently rich area where people who work for the government go to raise their perfect kids. But I went to private school when I was younger and there would always be someone so much richer than me. There were kids who owned their own horses and whose parents were billionaires, so I had no idea that I had any money until I was about 14 and people called me “Rachael Sacks of Cash”. My parents bought me clothes from Old Navy and I ate at McDonalds on weekends when I was a kid.

I’m not one of those people who try to be poor to relate to people. I think that’s honestly really disgusting behavior, it’s as if you’re saying that you have to make yourself into something you think is beneath you to get others to like you. Thinking that other people are beneath you just because of the financial circumstances they were born into is just gross. People give Gwyneth Paltrow shit for saying that she can’t live like someone who makes $25,000 a year. The statement itself is accurate, she was born into Hollywood royalty, it’s just the sneer implied with that type of statement that is disgusting. It’s the fact that she had to point out how much of a gap exists between her and someone who earns that income. That she is placing them in the dirt eating cheese from a can while she gets freshly made cheese from Genoa or some shit delivered by a damn fairy.

What I’m saying is that it should not be made into a spectacle that there are differences in income. It should not be made to define who people are, even though we do it all the time. And if we do judge people for displaying wealth or not we should attempt to show tact because fortune can change.