Author here. Thanks for reading and for sharing this analogy—it very aptly captures the sentiment. Thanks for that. I just wanted to say that not only was this

Author here. Thanks for reading and for sharing this analogy—it very aptly captures the sentiment. Thanks for that. I just wanted to say that not only was this post extremely difficult to write, but I really hesitated to publish it. When we start talking about privilege or lack-thereof, the conversation generally veers towards comparisons, which is only natural. If you grew up more fortunate than someone else, you say, "Wow, I can't imagine what that must have been like," whereas if you grew up less so: "I grew up with less than this guy or this girl and I'm not complaining" or whatnot. While that's a natural first instinct, I think we can, and must, move beyond that, to have real discussions. I definitely had more opportunities and grew up in much more fortunate circumstances than many people. As some people have pointed out, just being born in America and having a mostly stable home was very fortunate. Just because I grew up poor, I don't claim to know or understand your circumstances, unique set of challenges, or anything about growing up as an orphan in middle America, a black kid in Compton in a broken home, or a refugee fleeing a war-torn country. But we shouldn't be comparing the sharpness of spikes or depths of the abyss below us— we should be focused on getting as many kids across as we can, and providing safety nets to as many as possible. Talking about these things is hard, but I think it's a good start.