I wonder if it is a right of passage to pay the bills? This weekend, I took practically the whole family out to breakfast. It only cost me sixty bucks, but to fight for and win the right to pay for the bill is something I could not have achieved a couple years earlier. Then, just yesterday night, I shelled out $100 to help pay for the Easter Dinner Party at my fourth aunt’s house. That hundred doesn’t include the $20 for the homemade clam chowder. Only a year ago, if I attempted to use my money to help out at family events, the money would have been declined or stealthily returned to my parents, who’d then return the money to me.
Did I pass a threshold somewhere? Am I now considered a “breadwinner”? I’m not sure, but I think so. I feel honored.