Context:

It's weird. When I entered undergrad, I was from very modest backgrounds. My mother was at real risk from dying from a treatable diseases due to lack of funds. Our family made around 14k/yr as immigrants in America.

Then midway through undergrad, everything changed. My first cousin from the family we supported before my father developed his alcohol addiction married into major money. (Her father-in-law has around 400 million USD) My first cousin's family and mine were definitely the under-performers in our greater family. Now the tables turned.

My family basically peaced the fuck out of America and are living the good life back home. I stayed to finish up my education as I was on scholarship(scholarship given out to extremely poor people by 3rd party, i.e not exactly financial aid) at an Ivy League school.

The pros: Note that, the money is really in the hands of my cousin's father-in-law, I don't see a lot of the money. However, I enjoy a pretty easy life however. I eat out and don't really think of money when buying stuff I need. However, I don't really go on trips every weekend just so I can get brag about getting shitfaced in other places. That seems like an awful waste of money.

After I told my family about needing money for going to graduate school elsewhere, I received around 250k. Enough for tuition and living expenses and such, but not nearly as much money as some people would expected I would received. In fact, I don't really receive money except on things I specifically make a case for. The majority of my living expenses are still footed by my scholarship.

I remember being hurt by a lot of snobbish friends when I first entered undergrad. I've actually never mentioned about my SES improvement to anyone at school so the snobbish comments do keep coming. However, I can have a silent, internal smirk as I now have a clear idea of exactly where their financial limitations lie and how it's far below mine.

Cons: Ever since I knew I had a 6 figure job basically guaranteed through family, I lost a lot of motivation to study in my field. Physics takes a lot of brainpower and I just don't feel sufficiently motivated to slog through my classes sometimes.

At the same time, there is tremendous pressure to do something great. The path to getting there, the elements that can help me along the way, and the resources I need are clear as day. I just don't have the motivation I did in the past. Trying to rewire yourself is pretty hard when the only motivation you had in the past to apply yourself was to get out of poverty and that had already been achieved.