economic status

Last week I had some time to catch up with a few friends that I met back in high school. We began to talk about prom and how there was a friend group who rented out cabins for the prom weekend. Not that it mattered anymore, but I expressed my thoughts on how I had never seen such a large friend group and how it seemed like I never qualified to be in that specific group. I had even had a conversation with a girl that was in that friend group once saying how I felt as if maybe I was just not "cool" enough. As I brought this up one of my friends looked me in the eye with a bit of sorrow and sadly said, "money". At that moment it hit me, how I am always so aware of the economic and social spectrum that I naively never thought to view my own place in it. Yes me along with most of my friends fall in the middle or lower class. But how could this be that because of a piece of paper the world believes so much in, I cannot fit in with a group of people?
The thing is that these people they have nothing against me, they do not hate less wealthy people -- it just happens to be that we do not even get the chance to connect because of this barrier. This realization made me feel a bit sad and upset at the world for being the way it is, but then my friend later said, "Well, sure they get everything handed to them but be grateful because you are much more responsible and you have friends that care". I know this is not always the case but I understood what she meant. The girl I had conversed with months ago about how I was not cool enough, she told me that she enjoys being in the large friend group but that there is a major downside. She said she never gets to talk things out like she had with me that day, that she feels lonely because those friends are not there for her and they talk about the dumbest things that have no meaning.
I applied all this to what is going on in my life today and where I stand among my peers. Last week was my first week at college and I have to say I love it here. Everyone is so focused and in their own bubble to make sure they can be successful in class. I have met a lot of new people so far: people looking for study groups or homework help as well as classmates who just want to be friends. What I have come to see in my first week of college is that here people are not really looking for social or economic class. People here are looking for connections, help, and support-- a place where the mind is far more valuable than a piece of paper.
Thank you for reading my thoughts from outer space and remember you are a star!