Beneath Human Eyes

I really am lucky, despite the current look on my face. I grew up never wanting, but being cynical is just part of who Ive become. I was a spoiled child, got everything I could ever ask for, horses, jewelry, cars, vacations, private tutors, and the first female in my family to finish college and go on for a graduate degree. But they were just indulging me. They didn’t love me; they were just making sure that at least for the first 25 years of my life I had nary a hardship till they planned to sell me to the highest bidder. Despite growing up in the lap of luxury, I did not think that arranged marriages were actually practiced, well maybe amongst the super-rich, the super famous, and those with cultural practices. But my family, none of that applies to us. My father owns a lucrative hotel, my mother, his trophy wife, and me their only child. It took me going to college to see how messed up everything really was. Meeting people from all walks of life, to see just how disconnected I really was from it all. And when I returned home, the only thing I could see was exploitation. The business degree meant nothing when I learned I wouldn’t be taking over the hotel, the changes I planned to make for the sustainability of the local fauna and flora, providing meals, housing assistance, and competitive pay, out the door. It wasn’t like my parents couldn’t afford to be a little more humane, but it would be a travesty for my dad to have one less zero on his quarterly profit charts. So here I am sending out applications, for yet another degree that will wind up being useless, just to try and buy some time before marrying some pompous rich guy from some New England family.