Identity

There are two things in my memory that stand out today. One of them is from my political science class. The professor asked the class who had ever earned their money by physical labor. A large number of the hands in the room went up. Mine didn't. I hate physical labor. The closest thing to physical labor I've ever done has been baby sitting or dusting my parents' house for change as a child. He called on a few people to talk about what they had done. The first guy he called on worked as a farm laborer in the Salinas area. His parents still do it. Things like this always make me feel good that America does provide a lot of chances to be upwardly mobile in class. You can be born a simple immigrant farm laborer and still end up in a nice university. I guess in a way I hadn't ever thought that there were people like that in my classes. They would be in some of my easier classes, but by the time they're in upper division courses you don't notice them. I'm sure they've always been there, I just haven't noticed. I feel like a snob. I feel like a privledged elite, and I've never considered my family to be that well off.

The second event that stands out came about when I was complaining to one of my classmates about my roommate never helping me clean. I explained how we had thought about hiring cleaners, but it was too expensive. One of the girls in the class asked me how much they wanted, I told her 90 dollars for my small little apartment. She said that she was sure her boyfriends' mother could do it much cheaper and she would ask. She said that she used to clean houses for money, but that it was really too much work. I agreed with her. But two events in one day made me realize that I'm a spoiled little girl.

I sit here in an apartment that my mom pays the rent for, eating food that my parents give me money to buy, drive a car that my parents own and pay the insurance on, and going to school that my parents pay for. I think I would feel weird hiring a classmate to do cleaning for me, but as long as it's her boyfriend's mom who does it... it wouldn't be so bad. Maybe I need a reality check? Then again, I consider cleaning in the same category as plumbing. I might be able to do it, but it takes me a long time and I'm not good at it. It's a skilled job in a sense to be able to do it quickly and well.

Am I a bad person?