How to Live in Privilege

As I've mentioned before, when it comes to my financial situation, I have what I consider the best of both worlds. My parents are divorced. My father makes a pretty good sum of money while my mother...not so much. Her annual income is anywhere from a quarter to an eighth of his and my dad makes a good sum of money, but no, an eighth of that does not make for comfortable living by any means.  But I feel lucky to come from homes that are so diverse. On one hand, my dad does a pretty good job of making sure that I have what I need even when my mom is struggling financially, on the other, I do know what it is to be without and this gives me a special empathy for the poor that only ones who have lived in poverty can obtain and I consider this a great gift, but I am willing to admit that I am privileged.

I am privileged.

There. I said it.

I am privileged because  despite the fact that I currently live in a low income household, I am well clothed, well fed, and well educated. Not only do I have the opportunity to these things, but my living conditions grants me the ability to take a hold of these opportunities and make them real. Not everybody has that. Some people can have the opportunity to be well educated, but they have disabilities or illnesses that make it extremely difficult to be receptive in a classroom setting. Some have the opportunity to have a roof over their head, clothes and food, but have to chose safety over comfort because they come from abusive homes. As a resident of a town as vanilla as Mesa, Arizona who is perfectly capable of reaping the benefits of being a resident of Arizona, I am very, very privileged.

But I wonder, is there a right way to live in privilege?  Is there something that we are supposed to do past acknowledging the fact that we are privileged? Are we supposed to help everybody who doesn't have the same privileges as us get a leg up in the world?

Earlier this week I was thinking about the unique position the diversity of my family has put me in, and I contemplated how I could make the very best of it. So I reflected not only on myself but the people around me who have privilege in so many aspects and I wondered, what are people with more supposed to do?

I think the answer is to give back. I don't think we're supposed to push our privileges away. Reaping the benefits of one's own privilege is fine, so long as you use these benefits to give back, more specifically, to give back to the ones who have less, who are under privileged.

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