When I was a young child, professional aspiration was synonymous to me with the clatter of my mother’s high-heeled boots as she went off to teach each 1970s weekday morning, carrying her graded blue books under her arm. Each day was concluded when my exhausted mother picked me up late at the very end of after-school and took me home for a dinner of spaghetti and meatballs. Yet despite the evident effort they put in, my parents, college professors, had health insurance and the promise of pensions and Social Security. In their younger days, there were ample employment opportunities and cheaper
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