TLDR: A College friend wants to have a reunion of our old club. She's been obscenely wealthy her entire life and can't fathom that most of us can't drop everything for a week, fly to California, and do what she wants. Laments that simply being alive even though I am poor, depressed, suffering, and desperate is better than anything because I can always follow my dreams.
An old friend from college called me out of the blue. We were in the same obscure anime/gaming/DnD club at our school with about 15 other people (before geek culture was considered cool) and became close because we were social outcasts. She wants to get everyone together in her city and have a reunion. Fun right? No! Let's call her Amy.
After we graduated and went our separate ways, Amy moved to Southern California and has been living off of her multimillion-dollar trust fund ever since. We didn't know she was wealthy in college but we knew her family was comfortable. Most of the group is doing okay but a few of us, myself included, are basically broke, depressed, and stuck in jobs we hate. But even the ones doing okay still have to work every day to provide for themselves and/or their families.
Back to my convo with Amy about the reunion. She wants to do an entire week of activities (including going to Mexico for a day), we can stay at a hotel or Airbnb near her townhouse which is located in an extremely HCOL area, we'll have to rent a car, etc. I was calculating the cost of the trip in my head and it was 1000s of dollars I don't have.
I flat-out told her that I wouldn't be able to take a week off, especially when Nov-Dec is incredibly busy. She responds with “I'll pay for your flight!” Um Ok??? That means nothing. I won't have a job to come back to if I just take an unapproved week off.
She honestly cannot compute in her brain that I can't just jet off to San Diego for a reunion on a whim and neither can most of our group.
I went into a rant about how much the PTO system sucks and how employers want you to use it as little as possible. I also kind of unloaded about how I was so depressed and tired of barely being able to survive despite working my ass off every week in a toxic workplace. I also mentioned late-stage capitalism being a large reason as to why so much stuff is fucked.
Her reply? “But you're alive, right? You can always follow your dreams as long as you have breath in your body! You can one day own your own business and make your own hours and vacation whenever you want!” After giving me worthless and tone-deaf advice, Amy said she would start a group chat so we could plan this reunion and hung up.
I despise rich people because they are out of touch and contribute to our misery. They don't care what happens to the rest as long as they can step on us and enjoy their wealth. Rich “friends” aren't real friends and I realize that I can no longer be connected to someone so out of touch. Fuck you, Amy!