Money Doesn't Buy (True) Friends

There is something that I have been meaning to let everybody know, but also at the same time I have been a little scared and have not wanted to admit it... but it's true. My whole life I have had everything handed down to me and have mostly been able to get whatever I want and (most of the time) when I want it. I have discovered that this is not how life typically works, and that most of the time, those types of people end up not having a lot of friends. I have always thought that maybe that is the reason why I don't have many friends.

The one thing that has really bothered me in my life is that when I bring my friends to my house, they end up believing that I have all the money in the world and that my parents and I will just never have to worry about money. I will admit that in the past I have not had to worry about money but that has changed since the financial crises. My dad has always told me that money doesn't grow on trees, and that my grandfather had to work three jobs once during the Great Depression. I always just ignored him because I never thought I would ever have to worry about it.

I was pretty spoiled as child; my grandmother would serve me breakfast, lunch and dinner in bed when I would go and visit her on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I always received birthday presents and always an amazing amount of Christmas presents. I will never forget when Nintendo came out and I had asked for it and I got it. While I am grateful for my ability to have material things, I do know that money does not buy you everything that you want. There were two things that I didn't have growing up, and even though I have one of those things now, I still don't have the other -- friends. I finally got a girlfriend though, who I love with all my heart, and she loves me with all of her heart.

The thing about being wealthy is that whenever I have parties, I never think that my friends are there just because they want to see me. I think that they are there because they want to come to a forty room mansion in Georgetown with a tennis court and in a pool. Being rich is as easy as it looks: money can buy you trouble and fake happiness. Yes, I drive a Mercedes 350 coupe which was my fathers, but I mostly drive it alone. And yes, I live in Georgetown, now next to my parents but the house that I live in, built by Todd Lincoln, Abraham's son, was once attached to the main house.

I never throw any parties there, it is always my roommates, the girls mainly. At first I thought that whenever their friends came over, they were really excited to see me. But unfortunately I think I have learned that they could care less about me -- they're just there to see the house. Whenever I see my roommates' friends, I can see now that they're no more than just fake smiles. To be fair, I do have a few genuine friends, but only a few. These are the people who support and care about me for me -- not for who my family is.