Seriously, it's NOT a competition!

Hello, my name is Stace and I am poor.

This is not an invitation for you to compete with me on your level of poorness, too.  This is not an opening for you to tell me why you are poorer than me or why your lack of money is worse than mine.  

Remember the days when we all wanted to do BETTER than one another?  What happened to those days??  Why am I ranting about this?  Because recently I had a conversation with someone that I am close to and just sort of shared very briefly what's been going on with us.  I didn't go in to great detail, it was just like "Things are really tough right now and I'm stressed, blah, blah, blah..."

Their response was to tell me about how they returned from a vacation to have two of their utilities shut off and how much they are struggling to keep up with their bills.  Okay, fine.  I sort of felt that it was relatable and we were done.  BUT...I come to find out that it was all a big, fat LIE.  No utilities were shut off, no struggling.  I mean, really?  I get it if you were trying to make me feel better if you were genuinely struggling but this level of competition or "I'm poorer than you" just seems juvenile.  

I don't want anyone to compete with me on this.  It's ridiculous.  I know that there are people in worse condition than we are or who have struggled with the same things, I get it.  Don't create drama and lie so that you can seem relatable!  That's just insane!  

Oy...I just want to have a normal life again...