My Parents Went to Aspen for Christmas Without Me—So I Rehomed the Dog and Kept the Paperwork

flights to Miami and Los Angeles. Shopping sprees at Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus. Spa treatments and expensive dinners. The billing address for all three cards was my parents’ house—this house where I lived in the basement, unaware that my own identity was being used to fund my family’s lifestyle.

I thought about all the job applications that had been continue reading …