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by dbshapco 3551 days ago
I think it is the feeling that you can't mess up that this references and which persists.

My past was a single mother, deadbeat dad, welfare and food banks.

Now I have a comfortable six-figure income and have been employed for over two decades.

I still feel like I'm one bad break away from being on the streets.

3 comments

I'm not quite sure what you're saying. Do you mean you feel like you're only one bad break away, emotionally, but rationally you know you're not? Or do you mean you still are actually one bad break away, for some reason?
Emotionally and quite illogically.

You can take the kid out of the ghetto but you can't take the ghetto out of the man.

I just pray to God and am thankful for everyday I can sleep in my bed and feel relatively sure I can sleep in it tomorrow.
I grew up in a stable working class family where I was encouraged to study, and feel the same way. Why do all articles like this assume it's related to an upbringing in poverty?
Because if you belong to a stable middle class family, it's not only not true, but has never been true for you for a moment?
What is 'not true'? That I can fall to where I came from when I fuck up? Why would it be less true for me than for someone else?
But, as discussed, this article is about feelings not truths.
Feelings dictate how one acts. Even if you can fail, if you feel you can't, that is going to affect quite a bit how you approach things, or if you approach them at all.
Right, so how is that different for someone who grew up poor than for someone who grew up not poor?
That's what the entire discussion and article are about.