Precisely why I adore chocolate-covered pretzels ^.^
I do realize that I've gotten off-track of the original point of this post, and I apologize. But schools where the answer is "throw money at everything" are....yes, toxic, toxic, toxic.
(God, now I'm remembering how hard teen!me tried to find cheaper alternatives, only to have friends still want the pricier option. For example: I couldn't afford to go to Lisa's Tea Treasures, so suggested we all dress up and make our own scones/tea sandwiches and do our own. They noped that. Sigh.)
Anyway, I'm not doing a good job explaining this in the character limit, but the point is: YES, it is deeply awful when wealthy public schools simply expect parents to fork over money for, say, a class trip abroad. I have spent a lot of therapy unpacking my feelings about money because of it.
The GUILT of it--of KNOWING I was intensely privileged and intensely ungrateful--was such a heavy thing, especially during lonely periods like the summer everyone was in Edinburgh. I resented so much all the knowledge and culture I missed because I didn't have the money my immediate peers had.
Teen!me was torn apart knowing how ungrateful I was...but also couldn't stop comparing when I was walking everywhere while everyone else was given cars; when I couldn't go on the "lifechanging" class trip to perform in Edinburgh; when I sat around restaurants eating nothing while friend ate, etc.
Ah, this is my neck of the woods, too. I grew up in Saratoga, which meant I was VERY privileged but also much LESS privileged than everyone in my immediate vicinity, and let me tell you, it FUCKED with me something bad.
"Lay" vs "lie." It's hit the point where I read published novels that get it wrong, and it ALWAYS makes me stumble in the reading, thrown by tense.
...and two, because I've already packed up all the books on the shelves, I suddenly have a whole new WORLD of decorating possibilities open to what I DO with those shelves. Eep!
Not gonna lie, I'm actually feeling a little overwhelmed at the moment because we're simultaneously starting to pack to move house, which means, one, that there's loads of boxes/packing supplies everywhere along with the decorations that need to go up (and mess always overwhelms me)...