I Don't Want to Die Poor: Essays

It’s adorable to believe we live in a meritocracy, but so much of certain types of success is dictated by everything else besides perceived special talents and abilities. It’s about privilege, and how that privilege gives way to greater access and larger means than are offered those who lack it.

The problem isn’t whether or not you can afford the yacht you’re showing off on television, but whether or not activities like, say, not paying people livable wages are how you were able to pay for that yacht.

The criticism of the rich is not rooted in people being successful enough to become wealthy, but a system that allows people to build massive fortunes based on exploitation—and using that power to consolidate power that prevents them from ever facing any consequences for such abuses.

didn’t know what to think about myself based on my own metrics, so it was ill-advised to measure myself by his.

have to conquer all that leads me to rush for an escape.

I cringe at using verbiage that borders on saccharine, but on a fundamental level, there has to be a greater love of self that supersedes setbacks, and the dangerous coping mechanisms we turn to in order to deal.

People may have your absolute best intentions at heart, but dreams often die at the encouragement of those who have long since let theirs die.

get so tired. So very tired. I worry it may never end, no matter what I do. Sometimes, you worry so much and your fears and trauma trample so hard over you that you just don’t want to get up. You don’t know what to do anymore. Everything else you used to do no longer works. You don’t have the desire to try anything else. Then people pile their prob

Knowing people aren’t being totally honest with what they are showing you doesn’t mean what they show you still can’t get to you.