I’ve always been one of the smarter people in my classes and at work. I consistently scored in the top 1% on standardized tests for most of my academic career.
The wealthy kids were rarely smart enough to figure stuff out on their own. And their parents were too busy making money to care. So those kids would buddy up to me and come to me for help.
Thinking they wanted real friendship, I helped them. Then as soon as they didn’t need me anymore, they disappeared.
Now I’m jobless, without much formal education, and living in poverty.
They’re in cushy jobs, with lots of formal education, and living in nice apartments/homes.
Now they want to act like they’ve earned it all and like they suddenly perceive me as a competitor—not a friend.
This reflects the research, which shows that high-scoring poor kids are less likely to make it in society than are low-scoring wealthy kids.
In retrospect, they have used me as a free ride. They could’ve hired tutors for all their stupid questions. They already had more resources than everyone else. But they were too cheap for that.
I wish I had never helped them. Left them to figure as much of it out as they could on their own.
Because now I realize: They were just using me. And now that they’ve done so, they could not care less about helping me, in return.