Anyone else grow up in poverty and feel like an outcast?
I'm just curious if anyone else has this feeling. The vast majority of people on my team come from affluent areas, went to good schools, parents had good jobs. Money was never an issue. They've never experienced an adverse event. I grew up poor in a single parent household and went to a pretty pathetic school, got some great scholarships and went to a state school down the road.
I feel like my peers (we're younger on the associate level) care a lot more about material things. They're embarrassed to have an old phone or an old car. They won't shop at Walmart or other cheap grocers. Sometimes when they're talking about their life growing up or even what they ate for dinner last night, I can't relate in the slightest. Do you guys try to chime in with your own experiences? Ignore these conversations? Do you gravitate towards others with similar backgrounds to you and how do you find them? I'm struggling because I feel like when I chime in with my own experiences there's always a joke that comes out of it.