By grade five, I already knew the stereotypes of the Appleton High Schools: Appleton North was the rich school, West was the poor school, and East was somewhere in-between. While it was due to my location that I was zoned into East, I had always thought that it was because my families socio-economic class that I was in the in-between. My class identity of working class to lower middle class ultimately put me in-between a lot of things, whether imagined or real. It put me between poor and well-off, between family and school, and in-between reality and desires. However, it was particularly my class's discord with my education, harkening on the ideas habitus, cultural capital, the factory model, and symbolic violence, that has forced me to learn…show more content… Up until my sophomore year of high-school, I was in the general track for my classes. When I decided to try and pursue the upper-track classes, however, I had no idea where to start. The cultural capital I gained from my parents could not help me here, as neither them nor my brother went through this process. Similarly, my guidance counselor had simply pegged me for someone who was, and always will be, in the general track classes. When I brought up to her that I wanted to sign up for advanced Sophomore English and AP World History and two math classes, to be able to reach calculus in high-school, she objected stating that none of my previous classes would have prepared me for the rigor of these advanced ones. In my guidance counselor outlining the disparity and lack of mobility between the tracks, it can be noted that there is a lack of autonomy in the track system all-together. Eventually, it was the support of my Freshman year teachers that convinced the school to allow me to jump into more rigorous classes, just not all of them. Advanced English was an easy decision to make, as it was easily my best subject, but the AP World and math decisions were harder and were clouded with the doubt from my habitus. I had never taken rigorous courses, and AP classes were even more uncharted territory. None of my family members or friends in my general track…show more content… First, my lower-middle class or working-class identity did not integrate with the ideologies and cultural capital presented within college track education, thus creating a space where I felt in-between most things in my life: never really belonging in anything. Second, there is never really a true in-between, you always have to choose one or the other in some way. For instance, there was no way that I could fully keep the working-class ideals of my family and adopt the new ideals and capital from upper-level classes and college. They simply valued conflicting things. Thirdly, however, despite having to choose, you can never really abandon the constraints of your initial class upbringing. Because my family, and subsequently myself, lacked to financial ability to support all of my aspirations, I am still in a constant conflict with money, my dreams, and what is feasible for me to accomplish given my class
