I Worked Ten Jobs While My Sister Lived Like a Queen

The SATs were over, and Mom sat there with her notebook, running the numbers.

"Four years of tuition and fees comes to a hundred thousand. At market rates, the two of you should be able to work at least ten jobs over these two months."

My sister and I both smiled, thin and bitter.

Mom believed in self-reliance as a parenting method.

Wanted spending money?

Earn it.

Fifty-two cents a load of dishes.

A dollar sixty a floor mopped.

Even the time I ran a high fever and landed in the hospital, Mom fronted the medical bill, then made us pay it back in installments once we recovered.