My parents are first generation immigrants to America that worked their way up from abject poverty in slums in their homeland to blue collar Americans. Other immigrants kids know how work ethic is ingrained into you. So I did well in high school and got into a good private college for free. It's my ticket into upper-middle class comfort.

And so far I have literally nothing to relate to with my peers.

I've sort of caught on in the last couple of years, but there's an enormous amount of information and culture and general stuff that these wealthy kids have that I didn't understand. And sometimes it's seemingly simple shit. I've never played tennis, and yet it seems like literally everyone here has some experience. I've never owned my own laptop till I received one through a grant, and it took me a long-ass time to figure this shit out. (Thank you Reddit).

Despite all of those things, the elitism that bothers the most is the obsession with where you to went to high school. HIGH SCHOOL. Unlike a lot of the people here, I went to a public school in a normal area. And it feels like more than half the population here went to a group of 10-15 elite boarding schools and magnet schools. The clubs here recruit based on who they went to boarding school with. Everyone hangs out with people from their boarding school. The frat type things we have here are pretty much barred from entry unless you are a rich, white, boarding school guy. Thankfully, I can retreat into the 10-15% of people that were "just" upper-middle class for social stuff. But it's still fucking frustrating.

I'm trying to get on the "it's about who you know, not what you know" train just a little, but it feels impossible. And I don't even want to talk about the "background questions" I've been asked by the girls here...