Money

Money

When I first went to school the thought of being given a large lump sum of money from my student loans was a scary thought for me. I didn’t want to make the mistake of overspending and not having enough during the school year.

So I made a plan.

First I calculated how much my tuition would be, and estimated the price of books. After I found a place to live and figured out all my expenses for each month, I calculated my rent and my car insurance; I deliberately overestimated my phone bill, laundry expenses, groceries and fuel expenses to make sure I had extra. Then I added up all these monthly costs to see how much money it would be in total just for my living expenses for the two semesters until I went home for the summer.

Only then did I have an idea of how much money I would have to have to make it through the year without worrying about a roof over my head or food in my belly. When I received my large lump sum of money, I took the amount of money for the living expenses for both semesters and put it in a separate bank account. This enabled me to see what I had for spending money knowing that I would never spend too much and not have enough left.

I then got a part time job to raise the amount of spending money I had so I could go out with my friends and have a good time, because really that’s what College is all about. It was a good plan, but it didn't solve everything.

Some things hurt. They nickel and dime you to death: fees for this, deposits for that, and the biggest heartbreak of all: books. Sometimes it seems that they bring out new editions all the time so that everyone has to pay the maximum amount for the very latest and glossiest. When I first came, I'd worked all summer, and then a good chunk of it went straight to the bookshop. Worse: about half the books were ones I didn't like and which were rather useless; trouble is, you can't tell ahead of time which half that will be.

When you are receiving a loan and working at the same time you must be very clear about the amount of money you will be making before and during the school year. I was told in February that I had made too much money during my first half of the year and they attempted to put my money on hold, which in turn would not allow me to pay for the second half of the year. I fought the decision, and they gave me the money to pay for the rest of the year. But now I'm not allowed to apply again until I pay back the amount they say I owe them. How can I pay the amount, when I am trying to pay everything else?

I decided to drop from full time status to part time when I finished my first semester. The numbers just wouldn't add up unless I stopped doing everything that was fun. It was also hard to admit to myself that I'd screwed up my plan because of the decision to not give me any more loans. Fortunately, I already had some education and I had contacts in my field. So it wasn't hard to get a job.

The hardest thing in the end was to say to myself: it's OK to do this, it'll still all work out. It felt like a defeat -- well, maybe I can be a little stubborn sometimes.

Now I have two lives, each of which I love. I'm fortunate to have excellent classes: lectures, seminars, reading, and writing about the topic I'm most interested in in the whole world. Working gives me a whole new perspective on the same group of topics, and I often find my school work is illuminated by what I see every day on the job.

Mind you, there are dangers working in the same field as you are studying. Some of the profs haven't been outside the walls of the university for many years, and it shows. They can be quite sensitive to someone contradicting them and using something that happened yesterday to back it up. You do have to bite your tongue sometimes.

But that's another story. Maybe I'll write it some day.