A mile in you shoes...

This is my first post in a while.  I am currently between semesters.  I will start with a lighter topic, while I acclimate to the real world.

       Lately I have seen more than a few posts on social media about not judging someone until you have struggled to walk in their shoes.  Some even stating that someone else could not have made it as far.  Sorry.  I'm calling B.S.

       First off, there is no way to measure this, so it is inherently false.  Second, to assume that someone else, in a similar situation could not possibly get as far as you, by whatever standard of success you chose to employ, is based wholly on arrogance.  The superiority complex driving this assumes that, not only is no one better than you, but that you gave your best effort, all the time.  We both know that isn't true.

       You know who could have gotten further than me in less time?  Damn near anyone.  I did not have a perfect upbringing, but I had many advantages that are denied to most.  My parents were together, they did their best to put some morality in me (for all the good it did...), I had some supervision and discipline, I had access to computers early on, etc.

       My biggest obstacle was myself.  I was observant enough to see the "good-old-boy" network in its glory, in the dung-heap of a city called Chicago.  I had no confidence in myself, despite tests scores telling me I should.  All I saw was that, being not born to privilege, I would be denied success.  Any success stories of others from working class families, I wrote off as statistical outliers.  (Which they are, but that is for another time)  A little cognitive dissonance would have served me well.

       So I will not say that someone else could not have done better.  Hell, most people probably could have.  But to say that no one can judge you until they have been you, assumes they never had it worse.  If you posted that on a social media site, most of the world has it worse than you.  And by the way, they have bigger problems than Starbuck's being out of their favorite flavoring.