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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Days of Broken Arrows" data-source="post: 1188336" data-attributes="member: 4258">OK, essay time! I have something to add that speaks to the larger issue at hand.Wealth can often be a prison for kids who grow up in it. It limits your choices and social circle. I feel DT Jr. is in some ways a prisoner of his dad's life and that explains his (poor) dating record. I have first-hand experience with this. I have nephews growing up super-wealthy. (I also dated in this circle in college but this comparison will focus on the nephews, since they're guys.) These kids actually have less freedom than I did. Everything is mapped out: Their private schools, their leisure time, their activities, their lessons, the clothes they wear, etc.On top of that, their dating pool seems a lot more shallow than the one I swam in. They can't just drive their ratty old Dodge Charger to the 7-Eleven and meet the hot working class teen babe (one of my favorite old stories I tell on here all the time).There are EXPECTATIONS about who these boys can date. The girls have to be in a similar social standing or mom and dad go berserk and the neighbors start tut-tutting. Wait...for that matter, these kids can't even drive a car like a Dodge. There are unwritten "rules" about their cars. They have to be respectable.Then there are the career paths. When I chose journalism, my folks didn't like it, but they went with it. It paid next to no money. I STILL drove the Charger -- noisy as hell. What could they do? They struggled when they were young and understood me in that respect.My rich nephews ain't gonna be choosing any "off-center" careers, that's for sure. Their colleges are already picked out and they're being prepped daily. They now need to equal or surpass how well their dad did. That ain't gonna be easy. The pressure is already on.These kids went from being fun, rambunctious boys to looking like beaten-down inmates. They seem world-weary and jaded, and they're still young.All told, I would prefer having lived a middle class upbringing instead of having to deal with a zillion expectations on what I'm supposed to do. I wasn't living in my dad's shadow. I knew none of his friends or co-workers. I was able to create my own "reality."And it's that reality that I now look back on as MY LIFE. I picked it. I hung out at the local print shop, found area record stores, met musicians, dated weird-as-hell girls, got my own job my folks knew NOTHING about, had my car break down, stayed at the beach with no money, etc.Freedom isn't traveling to dozens of countries because guidance counselors and professors say that "travel" helps make you well-rounded. That's pre-emptive resume padding.No one knew what I did or where I was most of the time when I was growing up. I didn't have much money, but I had freedom from pressure, which is pretty damned valuable.Maybe this is the real reason so many people seem impressed with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Say what you want about Markle, but in picking her, Harry at least threw off the shackles that he clearly had to live with all his life. She might have red flags everywhere, but she's HIS choice, not the choice of his family, friends, and social circle.Don Jr. could take a tip from him in that respect. I think he's spent his life like Frank Sinatra, Jr.: Living his dad's script, not authoring his own.</blockquote>

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