In all fairness, the school I attended wasn't in our "catchment area", which I'll try to explain now. The catchment area is normally a 5 mile radius around said school, and kids inside that radius can enrol at the school without any problems. The school in my catchment was full when we moved into the area, so my older brother had to go further afield to a school that still had spaces. When an older sibling already goes to the school, you then have more entitlement to go to the same school than other kids who live closer. This worked great for us, because this was the top school in our area.
It also won't be a surprise that the best school in the area attracts wealthier families to live in the catchment area; therefore meaning that eventually, 90% of the kids are from well-to-do families. Normally I don't have a problem with wealthy people. I'm not going to be bitter just because we were brought up in less fortunate circumstances, and I'm not going to complain about the lack of opportunities we had as a result. At the end of the day, my upbringing was less than perfect, but I've grown into a mature, responsible person, and it doesn't take much to make me happy.
But I think by the age of 24, these kids, now adults, should think about what they say, before they say it. In other words, they should know their audience. It was barely 9pm when these two girls started chatting about their uni days, and how their time there seemed to fly by. My mother couldn't afford to send me to university, my father had money tied up in his business, so he couldn't pay either. The hardest thing was that I couldn't get a loan from the government, because they said my father had enough money to send me. In the end I had to accept that there was no money, and I had to go out and work. I missed out on the university experience because of a crazy loop-hole. If I'm honest, I'm not over it, because I could have flourished with a higher education, but the government let me fall through the net because of a stupid rule. I don't blame anyone for this (other than the government!), especially not my friends; they had the opportunity, and they took it - good for them.
The conversation quickly moved to how their first years were awful, because they were homesick, they wanted to see their friends, and they basically had a crap time. But their reasons just didn't seem justified. You're homesick, I understand that, but you're also 18 years old. I was living on my own at the age of 17, working 2 jobs and studying with these girls while I was at school. One of their mothers actually drove up to the university campus and brought her daughter home each weekend, but this girl was still moaning. Even to this day, their parents are paying money to send their 24 year old daughters travelling round the world, and they still don't see how lucky they are.
It reminds me of a conversation I overheard in class when I was 17. One of my classmates turned 17 (the legal age to drive in the UK), and her mother had bought her a car. A car. Incredible, I know. I've seen "My Super Sweet Sixteen", and it's a world away from what I see day-to-day. But this hideously generous gift wasn't good enough for this brat. It wasn't the right colour, it didn't have the right alloy wheels, and it was a diesel and she wanted regular. Apparently she'd argued with her mother that morning, because, in her words "I told her exactly what I wanted, and she didn't listen". I remember listening to this conversation in disbelief. How can someone so lucky be so ungrateful? I'd have been lucky if I'd got a £20 note in my birthday card.
Urgh, I suppose I am having a bitch, but I do get annoyed at people like this. It's a different world. Sometimes it feels like I'm the only person on this Earth that appreciates the smaller things. I don't have many possessions, but I have a man that loves me, a family that would do anything for me, friends that understand me and a life I love. I have loved my life since I left school; the only resentment comes when I compare it to people who have had everything given to them on a plate - because let's face it; we'd all love an easy life.
Ironically, I probably would have lost Hubby, because when I was trying to apply to university, our relationship was still very new, and we would have just grown apart if I'd moved away. But because I stayed behind, I worked on our relationship, and now we're weeks away from getting married. I doubt I'd be in the same situation if I'd gone to university, so I'm grateful for that.
I consider myself very lucky, because I know people who are worse off than me, and I've been worse off than this. I just don't understand how they can have all of this, on top of having money and a university education thrown at them, and they still pick holes in it.
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