Who are Privileged and the Non Privileged ? (Family and Friends Excursion)

Reflecting on the interviews I held with my Family and friends, I notice that all four had started different life styles and ended up in unique futures in  their lives today. My first interview was with a female who is now in her early 50’s began her life well, got into the Medical School she dreamed of in Dominican Republic and now is displaced without her medical license and future career. She looks back to her life and sees how things would have been before she came into the United States and married. She always reruns her life and thinks about what would had happened if her life had taken a different turn for the better if she would have never rushed into marriage. Though she had her first child while in medical school that’s one thing in her life that she does not regret to this day, she states her first born motivated her to strive and do better each and everyday. Once she received her degree from medical school she left her family behind and came into the United States. She states that leaving with her husband to the U.S made her life go from being happy and independent to becoming a house wife and full time mom. She then had to put her career on hold and forget about her licensing examination. After she passed a whole year without preparation she felt stuck and this led her into major depression. Each and everyday  her husband would get into consent arguments with her because he wanted her home all the time, one of the arguments become so extreme that she suffered from her first stroke in an instinct. Now, in borderline recovery she noticed she had another barrier keeping her away from completing her dream. Three years later, her second child came along now a baby girl and she thought everything was going well for her but as her husband saw her becoming more independent again he only become worst and now she decided it was the last straw and she had to go of the marriage completely. Years, later now almost fully recovered from her stroke she met a new guy and remarried. She has even had her third child and was really happy to move on, but the only thing she was never able to move forward with was her medical career due to financial stability. With all the opportunities she had once she came into the states she regrets all the time she wasted on her dysfunctional marriage which never let her focus on her career. Until this day she only dreams of what could have happened if she did have the financial and emotional strength to get up and move forward, but this will just remain a dream.

The second female Interview was very different from the older female. This female was a 20 years old who was born in the United States with a middle class family. She is a full time student at BMCC employed at Saks 5^th Avenue four days a week for about 12 dollars an hour. She who has the opportunity “for the American dream” with the help of her family states she feels “overwhelmed” with her schedule and though she knows it can be worst she still complains about the work loud. However, though much of her time is at school and part-time at work she states she’s just way too busy for chores, when she has “down time” she does her homework and tries to sleep. She does not need to worry about dinner since dinner is either cooked or order everyday once she arrives home from school/work. She states that balancing school and work has been such a difficult task that she was shocked once she was told she made it on the dean’s list, she couldn’t believe it.. And not to forgot her excitement about most of her money going to her personal expenses since she doesn’t have to worry much about bills and children, her obligation is just to do dishes, do her laundry (some times), and give her mother about 15 dollars a week for her house bills contribution.

If we stop to think and analysis her success wouldn’t anyone be expected to perform well with little to stress? But just themselves - unlike the 51 year old this young lady has her whole life to turn upside if she like and start over. Her opportunities have been golden and what’s even crazier is that she feels overwhelmed with just little responsibility while the older lady only wished she could have been finically stabled and had time to complete her medical examination.

Second set of interviews held were on the masculine side. First male was a 23 year old Hispanic male holding a bachelors degree in architecture. He describes his life as pretty overwhelming since he struggled to find a job after his BA. While growing up he was limited to certain resources to better him in life in the sense that he couldn’t receive the best education as a privileged person, but he explains this as a big part of his motivation. Throughout his college time he worked 3 jobs in order to pay off his education since his mother couldn’t provide him with much financial help. This set him back a lot on his level of performance at school, but all he ever thought about was not being the perfect A student at college but to take that degree home to his mother and got on with the life he always dreamed of. The day he graduated he felt so accomplished and excited to start his new life but was not too happy to receive his first loan payment. Since he was pretty much in debt he had no choice but to move back with his mother in order to save some money and pay off all his student loans. After he was ready to further his career he went back to school to obtain his masters in mechanical engineering. Than he moved into a small studio alone since that’s all he could afford and again started the process of the homework load and working full time. He states that one positive outcome of this entire struggle was when he got his engineering job and his job offered him a grant to fund his education. He remembers his excitement because for once he was not going to be forced into taking out student to pay for his education. With the little time he has for himself he states he enjoys it by watching TV and doing his laundry or cleaning up, since his parents live about 5 minutes away from his apartment he doesn’t worry much about food or relaxing time. But he does state that he has no money or time to go out and enjoy the rest of his youth while it last but at least his accomplishing his dreams whether its in the price of taking away his freedom to go out and enjoy himself.  

Second male was a 26 years old white male in his third year of Medical School. Growing up in San Francisco in a upper class neighborhood he states that the only thing has complaints of while growing up was about the enforcements his parents placed on him about school. His parents never really wanted him to hang out much with other people but to work on his studies. He grew up in a household filled with luxury and comfortless with his home was full of flowers, activities outside (monkey bars, trampoline), and lots of gardening. His family was pretty big and closes so they always spent lots of time together. His grandfather also of wealth owned lots of land and his own vineyard, which he still has today and whenever he visits his family in California he goes out there to spend time as much time as he can with his grandfather. Though his off on his own in New York City because of medical school “[he] doesn’t feel too far away from his family since he speaks to them everyday and communicate his bills with them to keep up with his expenses”. He states he loves the independence in the big city and the way that he can live “stress free” not having to worry about paying any bills but just focusing learning how to save lives. The one thing that bothers him a bit about this whole experience is the extreme hours of “working” and learning with the 24 hour shifts in the hospital without getting “paid any money”. Since he dedicates so much time in the hospital he states that he struggles to keep up with his homework and readings but much of the information becomes easy when he learns how to apply what he learned in the field with the text book material. The little time he has free to himself when not in the hospital he goes out with his friends, sleeps, catches up on laundry which doesn’t take him much since he has machines in his apartment and what ever he cant wash gets sent to the dry cleaners. He also advocates for fitness and tries to fit hours in the gym as much as possible, especially because he will be entering residency next year and wants to look his best than for his “future wife “. Once he is able to get a little more time closer to residency he states he will be traveling for his two week breaks overseas to Europe with his friends and enjoying his time off.

With everything granted as we can see with the 26 year old versus the 23 year old who basically had to work his way up on his own in order to get to where he is we can see the advantages and disadvantage. While one was basically given everything in the world while growing up the other had to work 3 jobs in order to keep himself in school and obtain his degree. The 23 year old was forced to battle a life full of debt once he finished his Bachelors while the other is debt free and is living his dream without any finical stress. If we think can for a second they were to switch roles maybe the one who grew up with everything will see the struggle and gain independence? Or will the one that had to work his way be happy for once to not have to worry about a bill and just focus on himself and go out and enjoy his youth? All of this can be taken into consideration most of the disparities these two individuals hold are due to their Social Economic background and even the level of education they received to prepare them for the job markets and future careers.