“All You Do Is Take,” My Father Said—So I Stopped Paying

with a dining room and a backyard and enough space to feel like arrival rather than survival. I had the dinner catered. I cleaned the house myself, set up a fire pit in the backyard, bought wine that cost more than my first month’s rent at the apartment with the air mattress.

Nobody offered to help. Not with setup, not with cleanup, not with anything.continue reading …