My initial definition of class was a hierarchy which places people into categories by how much wealth they have or earn. I believe that, even still, there is certainly a lot of legitimacy to this early definition of class. For example, class is most definitely a hierarchical system where those with the most wealth reside at the top, while those with not as much wealth fall into the middle and lower categories of the hierarchy. For me, class has always been an interesting topic to learn about, due to the type of childhood I had when I was younger. My parents always did pretty well for themselves and held stable jobs, so growing up in New York City, class was never something that I truly had to think about on a personal level.
As I grew up, I started to understand more and more about what class was and the effects it can have on people. New York, though a very diverse city in almost every sense of the word, is still a very segregated place economically. The rich live in the rich areas, while the poor live in the poor areas. As I journeyed through my teenage years in public school, I became friends with a lot of people who grew up in not such well off areas of the city, something which truly opened my eyes up. I would often go to their houses, and see that their parents were never really around: they were always working, working two or more jobs in one day. This really opened my eyes to the amount of layers there are to class, and the many intersections it has with other factors. My parents were, for the most part, around during the evening times. We would have family dinners, and as a result of their close presence in my life, I became very close with them. For my friends, one in particular, this was never the case for them. My friend and I have had conversations about this, and he would always touch on the fact that due to his situation his parents were never really in the house with him: it was constant movement at all times. As a result, I reflected, and continue to reflect, on the intersection between class and its effect on family life as a whole.