Splash No. 16

Privilege

I’ve been thinking a lot about how I got to where I am today. I’ve been wanting to reflect on how fortunate I am to have grown up where and how I did.

I grew up in an upper-middle-class suburb of Atlanta called Alpharetta. What was considered “normal” was to care about school and there was plenty of diversity. My peers never did anything but make me want to be a better student. Although I struggled socially for most of my life, I was never bullied, unlike a huge percentage of the population.

Academically, I never really struggled, but when I did my parents were willing to pay for tutoring. I always had safe places to work and study and really never needed to focus on anything other than school. My parents had high expectations of how I should do, making me perform at a higher level. Without their pushing, I wouldn’t have been so academically successful.

Career-wise, I’ve always had guidance related to the tech industry, from my father and brother that both work in tech. I had guidance in terms of which programming languages to learn, blogs to read, the right people to talk to and the questions to ask them. For most people, this information is either inaccessible or has to be dug up through mentors, which usually are harder to talk to than family. I got one of my past internships through a family connection and technical skills that were built on guidance from my family. If I hadn’t come from an educated family, I wouldn’t have any of the opportunities that led to all of my major accomplishments.

The fact that I’m able to attend a top-tier university is its own privilege. I was born and raised in a state that lets me go to one of the top universities in the world without paying tuition through the Zell Miller scholarship. At the same time, if I was born undocumented, I wouldn’t be able to get in-state tuition or even gain acceptance to Georgia’s top 5 colleges.  By all means, I’ve been set up for success since I was born. All I needed to do was put in a little work and not mess up, and no matter how hard things have felt throughout life, I’ve always known that I will have some level of success.

In all honesty, I haven’t had to work all that hard and probably never will have to work as hard as individuals who were not as lucky as me, and had to grow up with more difficult conditions. I’ve always had people supporting me, financially, emotionally, spiritually. I can’t even begin to imagine how I would accomplish anything if I didn’t have this support system taking care of all of the little things I’ve never needed to worry about. 

I’m extremely grateful for all of the blessings I have received, but all of these things are disheartening in a way — that I’m on the same playing field as people who grew up bullied, with difficulties learning or studying, without guidance, without the benefits of the public education system. All of this affects my perspective greatly — I feel that this inequality is something to be addressed, and something that I want to involve myself in helping with. Even as I write about the lives of those less privileged than me, I don’t truly know what their lives look like. It’s the responsibility of the privileged to use that privilege for good and to help those who don’t have it.

You can check out my other illustrations on my Instagram @garabaggio. Sorry about the change of pace! We'll be back to regularly scheduled programming next week :~).

Drops of the Week
where I *drop* recommendations of cool things this week

Longread

“The Ghosts of the Tsunami” by Dadu Shin - haunting account of the people left behind by 2011’s devastating earthquake and tsunami. Don’t read this if you don’t want to be depressed.

Playlist
carrot cake & smoothers - a playlist by my very own brother! Cool combination of electronic, R&B, indie and more!

Design Project
Opera - interesting design work for an art exhibit about Opera through the ages.

Thanks so much for reading! If you have any comments/concerns or fan/hate mail for me, you know how to reach me (links below). 

Love,
Nikhil