I was broke.  I had just finished my schooling and was heavily in debt, plus my husband was still in school.  I just got my first “real” job with good pay and benefits.  This job involved several months of training and I wound up in a class full of people my age or younger but in very different financial circumstances.  Out of a dozen of my new co-workers, over half were still living at home with their parents.  There was one older divorced woman who owned a nice car and an apartment.  The rest had spouses or partners who were making good incomes.  Nobody had kids.  Nobody except me had much debt.

I believe that money doesn’t buy happiness.  But its hard to remember that while you’re broke and working every day in a room full of people who spend their spare time going to the latest restaurants and nightclubs, shopping and skiing and other activities you can’t afford to do.

Because of this, I had never felt like such a boring person before.  Some days I even found myself missing my previous poorly-paid “McJob” with its crappy pay and bad hours but the companionship of starving-student colleagues.

As I took the bus to work on Monday mornings, I found myself dreading the “What did you do over the weekend?” stories.  Yet, my tales of shopping at second-hand stores or listening to free music in coffee shops weren’t any intrinsically less interesting than my new associates’ stories of shopping for new cars or going to live concerts.  The only difference was that they spent a lot more money. 

Pretty soon, a group of them started going to restaurants and clubs together.  I, of course, could not participate and felt even more like a misfit. 

I did get a good amount of satisfaction from judging my co-workers sometimes! Two women who sat behind me could spend hours (or what seemed like hours) talking about high-end nail polish and lipstick.  I enjoyed parodying their conversations for my friends and husband. 

But I eventually learned ways to fit in - a little.  I started watching Survivor because my new co-workers watched it, and we debated who would be voted off the island next.  I thought many shows on Cable TV sucked, but they did cross socio-economic boundaries.  And a little small-talk about movies, books or music went a long way towards establishing a connection to the people I thought I had little in common with.

As I had to work closely with these people, I had to learn to get along with them.  It took some effort but over time a few of them became my friends.  Yes, once you get past the expensive cars and designer duds, some of them were worth knowing!

Who knew watching Survivor would ever save the day?