It's just one person's story, and it's sort of the curse of a person who writes a memoir in their early 30s to lack perspective. This story isn't super dissimil

It's just one person's story, and it's sort of the curse of a person who writes a memoir in their early 30s to lack perspective. This story isn't super dissimilar from mine. I was the first person in my family to ever go to college, on either side. My parents were stable at least, poor when I was a small child, but at least middle class by the time I was an adult, just still not enough to provide any meaningful level of support. Further generations back were doing almost exclusively low paid domestic labor or farm work. I was an exceptional smart kid who stood out from my family. I spent most of my free time in the library, got a perfect SAT score in 6th grade, won a television quiz show when I was still a kid. No idea where it came from. My dad is street smart but failed out of every level of school. My mom is the kind of person who thinks flouride is bad for you and believes in crystal healing. But I had a serious break down my first year of college (going to which was also my first time ever on a plane), so Ivy League was out of the question. Nobody was going to take me after what happened, no matter how smart I was. I spent a few years at LA City College before going to a Cal state, but was so directionless, I went to grad school just because I didn't know what else to do. At one point, I'm sure I had 120k in student debt. And it didn't quickly get a ton better in my 30s, even though career started to go reasonably well and I was no longer poor. I had serious spine problems and could only inconsistently work for a few years. I couldn't even dress myself for a few years. But where you stand at 32 is not the story of your entire life. I am no longer in any debt and am by far the most prosperous person in my family. Maybe somewhat ironically, I also wanted to be a writer for most of my 20s, but I not only never achieved any level of success, I never even really tried. I finished one novel, but didn't believe in it enough to even try sending it to a publisher. But I guess maybe that was a blessing in disguise if this is the life of a best-selling author. My best friend from college ended up winning an Emmy at one point, but is still poor, has never married, struggles with continuing mental illness. If there is a lesson here, I'm not sure it's don't go to college or don't go into debt or the poor always stay poor. It's that creative careers are a fool's bet almost no one wins even when they win.