My husband and I were both good kids, enrolling in college and getting our degree on. We were also ready and willing to get those gifts that keep on giving— student debt! Did I think about paying for my school after attending as the best and only option?(sorry Dave Ramsey!) Yes, I did. My parents taught me (in a well thought out way, knowing me as a person) that studies were a full time job and should be treated as so, and to also enjoy the college experience.
I did my part and got a half-ride scholarship to reduce the debt… and also accumulated 60 college credits before arriving on my first day of freshman year through the FREE program in Ohio called Post Secondary Enrollment Options Program (they probably renamed it by now). Seriously, I took piano lessons at college for free and only paid for (ok, mom and dad paid for) the parking pass.
I figured that graduating from college with $20,000 in debt was pennies with a full time job and my genetically inclined “make doing” otherwise known as so frugal you don’t buy what you want ever.
Problem number one with entering college directly after high school.
High school is not real life. If I wanted any sort of life experience, there was no facilitating of that through my high school, I had to seek it out. I did one job shadowing before college, with my own pediatrician. I liked what I saw, so I thought I was moving in the right direction. (But I didn’t do any other job shadowing…. which I should have).
I started college bored and antsy in my classes…. too much theory, too little application. I could have used a trade school option for that semester. I really enjoyed my work study job (setting up labs and taking care of frogs for the neurology professor), and I loved my musical extras (Jazz and piano lessons), but I was really enjoying the social aspects of college… friends that live in the room next door? They want to hang out right now? Let’s go for a run! Let’s eat for the seventh time today!
Eventually I buckled down and got my studies done. I just didn’t enjoy my chemistry and biology classes… which were essential for my Biology degree… to go to medical school to become some sort of doctor… so I did a cross cultural in DC for a semester (which you can read about in detail on the blog !!! from 2010!)
Then I did a summer of service/outreach in New York, and I have honed and toned what I was going to do with my college experience— social work. I’ll be honest— it was either elementary education and social work. and the reason that I picked social work was….. drumroll please…. because I would still finish my degree in three years. I wanted to save money!! (Did one more year really matter that much in the amount I would be paying for loans? Not really. But in the actual events of my life, it worked out much better to graduate in three years… hello Naisa!) Once I started social work, it was definitely what I wanted to do (I could have said that with elementary education though).
I was ready for whatever the degree threw at me!
