Dear Cat:

Your parents sent you the message that you are lucky, unlike them. Your sister sends you the same message, she must have heard your parents stating the same message. Or otherwise she thinks you are lucky for having an education she didn’t have.

But you don’t feel lucky, do you.

A couple of points: when you first mentioned that your sister lives in Wales, I thought to myself how beautiful Wales is. I have such good memories of Wales. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought your sister is lucky because she is living in Wales. People think other people are lucky for this and that, not knowing better.

Second point: when a parent gives you an opportunity that they didn’t have, such as attending a university, but then send you the message that you are lucky and they are not for this very thing, what they do is take away the advantage in the advantage. I will give you a simpler example: when a parent gives you a delicious piece of cake and tells you while handing it to you and while you are eating it something like: I suffered so much working so to make the money to buy you this cake, look at my hands, they are raw from scrubbing toilets so to make the money to buy you this cake.

How much are you going to enjoy the cake… and every cake afterwards? Will it not remind you of her raw hands and suffering, when you eat a cake. You may still enjoy the flavor but you will also suffer, will you not?

Better not be given such opportunities, pleasure and advantage mixed with pain and disadvantage.

So you have a university degree but you are in bed, depressed. Not so lucky.

Let me know your thoughts. There is more to your post but … one thought or point at a time.

anita