Don't let this crap fool you

Yes you are

This popped up in my Facebook feed right before I watched some people eat the hottest pepper in the world, and then went to bed. Or at least I tried. The Guaifenesin Dectromethorphan I took for my congestion hasn't quite kicked in and made my brain feel both smaller and larger than my skull yet. I was kind of hoping I would be asleep at least an hour ago. Instead, here I am, laying in bed with my eyes closed thinking about what's going on in this girl's head.

First off, good for you. I'm am really happy that you have been able to support yourself like that. It is incredibly commendable. You should be proud, but you shouldn't expect everyone to have the opportunities you had.

I was about to stay in the second person, but screw that. This is obviously an exceptional young woman. She was able to beat out thousands of other high school seniors to get into the most desirable schools in the nation, affordable public schools. Unfortunately, their affordability makes competition for spots in class fierce, and the university is obviously only going to accept the best candidates. That scholarship was pretty lucky too. Without that free ninety percent tuition, she wouldn't be able to brag about being debt free.

I'm starting to think this question pops up in a lot of people's heads: "Why isn't everyone more like me?"

Besides that point, the whole "stop complaining and just do it" mentality works great in theory, but everyone forgets that millions of people are working their asses of looking for any job at all when no on is hiring. Why isn't anyone hiring? Because a few bankers on Wall Street decided to trick millions of people into mortgages they didn't know they couldn't afford (while the loan officers knew that fact all too well) and then sold little pieces of that debt as commodities that became worthless as these people inevitably defaulted, and because the market was inundated with this hot new thing, companies collapsed left and right.

Just because you got lucky, doesn't mean everyone else has the same opportunities you did. Keep an open and sympathetic mind.