“You’re lucky to be here.”
The words from the MIT administrator hung in the air. I did feel grateful to study at MIT and receive a world-class education that hopefully one day would help me become an academic. But I was trying to explain to this administrator how unbearably difficult it is to pay my MIT bills while supporting my partner and child on an MIT graduate student’s stipend. And here I was, a day late on clearing my balance, being told to feel grateful.