Middle-class upbringing meant speaker could afford himself but not others; knew money leads to easier life.

I didn't know what any of that looked like. All I knew was I lived a pretty okay life. I wouldn't say I was poor, but definitely not a vacation every year. You know, I had to scrounge up some money for the book fairs and saved up quarters and stuff to go buy stuff at the ice cream man, right? So things like that, I'd say I had a pretty healthy relationship with money in a sense where I never felt like I didn't have it, but I never felt like I had too much of it either. Like I never was able to pay for somebody else, but I would always be able to pay for myself. Yeah, so growing up, it wasn't something where I felt like, wow, I need to make a lot of money one day, but I definitely knew that more money leads to a better life or an easier life at least.