Not all of the people at Chapman are rich. Not all of the people in Orange County are rich. You chose to come to Chapman in the first place so stop complaining about it. Everywhere you are going to go in your life you are going to find people you don’t completely connect with. I by no means am rich, either. I worked my butt off in high school so I would be able to come to a place like this. However, I think if you were more open to the people around you, you would find out that the majority of people here at Chapman are the same way; they had to work hard to get here. You stated in your column, “Even amid the glittering world of fine wine ... I managed to like the parents. They were friendly and understanding. They were real.”

Did you assume because they were able to attend a high function like this that they would not be real? It is mindsets like this which create problems in the first place. You should meet everything and everybody with an open mind.

You also stated, “Why shouldn’t girls who suffer in the shadows be spot-lighted on the stage and feel beautiful?”

First of all, you don’t have to be primped and polished to feel special. If you think this, you are just conforming to how society wants you to think. You also do not have to be recognized to feel special. As long as you know in your heart what you are doing is the best for yourself and for others, you should not need confirmation from others.