I grew up in a working-class family—blue-collar through and through. Now I live in a world full of academics, PhDs, and prestige. And to be honest, I don’t feel like I fit in anywhere.

Both sides have their own kind of snobbery. On one side, being “too educated” makes you the outsider. On the other, if you act like a normal human—go to your kid’s baseball game, show up at a PTA meeting, take time to just live—it’s seen as a waste of time.

There are unspoken rules about how you’re supposed to act, what success looks like, and who belongs. And most days, I feel like I’m doing a bad job at playing both roles.

But here’s what I’ve learned: most people are just figuring things out. Nobody really has it all together. And the more we pretend we do, the more we lose what really matters—connection, curiosity, and just being human.