Sustainability Was My Life as a Poor Kid in Rural North Carolina

I just didn’t see it that way

Old uniform pieces from my dad’s job turned me into a scientist one year for halloween. Photo by author.

Explaining to my college friends that I had never been on a plane was like telling them that I had super powers. I was always met with awkward stares of complete disbelief.

You see, I went to college at Wake Forest University, a school known to be the second home of the young adult children of the richest of the rich. Some of my friends were absolutely loaded.

I tell this story because I never really felt poor until I was constantly around extremely rich people. I even convinced myself that my family was middle class — imagine my astonishment when I saw the income requirements for “middle class households” in my intro to sociology class. My family did not meet those criteria.

In college, as I got involved with sustainability clubs, I began to notice something really weird. Sustainability for rich people is just everyday life for poor people. Sustainability in some conceptions is just surviving as a poor person in America. And even so, there is still this weird tendency to blame the poor for unsustainable habits.

Adding Water to the Shampoo Bottle

Growing up without a lot of money, my family had to make the most of everything.