Bourgeois
"You went to college?" I asked the attractive welder sitting across the campfire from me. I've know him for a few months, and one might say I'm mildly interested. Learning that he had gone to college, I was curious how he ended up as a welder.
"No, I didn't go to college! I'm not as privileged as all you little bourgeois rich kids! My family couldn't afford college!" He replied with more than a hint of bitterness in his tone. He tends to tread on the sarcastic side, and I tend to let people assume whatever they want about how I went to school, but there was something so angry and while jealous, also condescending. I wasn't about to let him patronize me for his false assumptions.
Raising my voice I leaned forward and yelled, "I grew up in a double-wide trailer, down a dirt road, with 15 other people in the house! Don't give me that 'bourgeois' bull crap! I worked my butt off to put myself through school!" Miffed, I sat back and waited for him to reply.
His response was silence. He had nothing to say to that. Really, what could he? Some else observed, "Wow, Welder has nothing to say to that!"
Someone else leaned over to me, "Really? 15 people?"
Not feeling like explaining the various amounts of people at the various times who shared our humble home I simply nodded and said, "yes." Sometime I may correct that number for her, but that wasn't the time.
"Wow, that explains a lot of what you do," she stated.
Let people assume what they will, but the moment they look down on me for false assumptions I get more than a little agitated. Everyone at that campfire last night learned a lot more about me than any of them had ever known. I wonder how their opinions of me changed then.
"No, I didn't go to college! I'm not as privileged as all you little bourgeois rich kids! My family couldn't afford college!" He replied with more than a hint of bitterness in his tone. He tends to tread on the sarcastic side, and I tend to let people assume whatever they want about how I went to school, but there was something so angry and while jealous, also condescending. I wasn't about to let him patronize me for his false assumptions.
Raising my voice I leaned forward and yelled, "I grew up in a double-wide trailer, down a dirt road, with 15 other people in the house! Don't give me that 'bourgeois' bull crap! I worked my butt off to put myself through school!" Miffed, I sat back and waited for him to reply.
His response was silence. He had nothing to say to that. Really, what could he? Some else observed, "Wow, Welder has nothing to say to that!"
Someone else leaned over to me, "Really? 15 people?"
Not feeling like explaining the various amounts of people at the various times who shared our humble home I simply nodded and said, "yes." Sometime I may correct that number for her, but that wasn't the time.
"Wow, that explains a lot of what you do," she stated.
Let people assume what they will, but the moment they look down on me for false assumptions I get more than a little agitated. Everyone at that campfire last night learned a lot more about me than any of them had ever known. I wonder how their opinions of me changed then.
posted by granola girl at 9:13 pm
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