I’ve never seen this issue so well articulated and I’m looking forward to more! I grew up with 5 siblings in a tiny house outside Philly. My dad was a welder, my mom a waitress. Neither graduated from high school. There was never an expectation that any of us would rise above. Long story short, I eventually graduated from Yale Law School and settled with my two children in Connecticut. Needless to say there was some culture shock to navigate in so many ways! 🙏
Love this piece Kristy. So excited that you've coined a much-needed term for this somewhat hard-to-articulate experience, and that you're going to keep writing on this topic. It's so important and resonant. Honored to have helped shape the essay a bit, and now that it's live, I'll be sharing it with some friends who will surely relate!
Thank you for sharing. I think sometimes this phenomenon is not even chiefly about finances. My family wanted me to get an education, but when I did, I don't think they were all that pleased with the person I became. The money is kind of secondary. It's mostly about the perception that youve left the group you were raised in -- whatever that looks like.
Amy you are spot on. I have been doing interviews with self identified folks that fall into this camp to build out some more threads and I have seen this idea repeatedly. I definitely plan to tack what it means to "leave the group".
An incredibly familiar narrative through multiple lenses besides class to a first generation American like me. Life is lived in parallel universes, where the immersion in each is so deep that the other universe ceases to exist for the moment.
Particularly relevant to those of us who live our lives in the U.K.
I’ve never seen this issue so well articulated and I’m looking forward to more! I grew up with 5 siblings in a tiny house outside Philly. My dad was a welder, my mom a waitress. Neither graduated from high school. There was never an expectation that any of us would rise above. Long story short, I eventually graduated from Yale Law School and settled with my two children in Connecticut. Needless to say there was some culture shock to navigate in so many ways! 🙏
Thank you so much for this comment Suzanne. Are you on twitter by chance?
I’m not. 😕
Love this piece Kristy. So excited that you've coined a much-needed term for this somewhat hard-to-articulate experience, and that you're going to keep writing on this topic. It's so important and resonant. Honored to have helped shape the essay a bit, and now that it's live, I'll be sharing it with some friends who will surely relate!
Thank you for sharing. I think sometimes this phenomenon is not even chiefly about finances. My family wanted me to get an education, but when I did, I don't think they were all that pleased with the person I became. The money is kind of secondary. It's mostly about the perception that youve left the group you were raised in -- whatever that looks like.
Amy you are spot on. I have been doing interviews with self identified folks that fall into this camp to build out some more threads and I have seen this idea repeatedly. I definitely plan to tack what it means to "leave the group".
Beautifully written, Kristy. I think a good percentage of America are straddlers. I know my parents were.
An incredibly familiar narrative through multiple lenses besides class to a first generation American like me. Life is lived in parallel universes, where the immersion in each is so deep that the other universe ceases to exist for the moment.
This is really poetically put Shuba!
I never heard that name, but it's very relatable. I am a Straddler, just an European one. I wonder if that makes experience somehow different.
I have interviewed a few folks from the UK, I hope to talk to other Europeans to expand my thinking on how relatable the concept is.