At least, that’s what it feels like to me. I have a huge chunk of money that I’ll probably be paying all the way up into my 40’s or something, much like my parents are both doing at this time, much like how they’re also paying off the cost of our house. The college that I’m attending to is kind of expensive. Okay, it’s REALLY expensive. Actually, it’s about $40,000 a year, and since I’m trying to get into either a 6-year or 7-year program in the school that I’ve been accepted to, the total cost of me doing all of this will range from around $240,000 to somewhere around $280,000.
I find this completely ridiculous. I could buy several brand-new cars with this money. I could even afford a nice house, and most likely still have money over (because the average cost of a house is somewhere around $160,000… right?) to live quite nicely. I personally think I was one of the more lucky ones. Not many students can even afford attending their first choice of college. Although I can’t really say that we can afford it at all. It’s kind of hard to admit, but to be extremely honest, we’re really broke. I’m almost positive that it wouldn’t be this bad if it weren’t for the fact that we were hit by a flood about a year ago. And it’s not like our mortgage company helped us with that… they didn’t even seem to care. Having this amazingly expensive cost on top of everything else just isn’t working.
Why is college education so expensive anyway? Is it really because it’s private? And another thing, why is it getting more expensive as time goes on? Nobody seems to be able to see this, but as the cost of everything goes up, the number of people who are actually able to PAY for it go down. Doesn’t anyone see a pattern? But it still doesn’t answer my question.
I don’t even know how I’m going to be able to pay off my debts when I get out of college. I’m using I think three different loans through Ithaca College, and at the moment they don’t seem like much ($2,000-something or other about), but that stuff builds up, especially over several years. College wasn’t this expensive 20 years ago was it? And what is causing it’s to go up? Inflation? Just why would inflation affect getting an education. It’s education, you know, the pursuit of knowledge. Not some other means of leeching money off of people who are trying to make something with themselves. Why would we even be setting a price for education in the first place? I thought knowledge was more or less free. In order to learn things that you want to learn in order to get the life career of your choice, you have to pay up to $50,000 a year, sometimes even more, just so you can get it? Can anyone else how messed up this is?
The pursuit of knowledge shouldn’t even cost anything at all. But since this is a capitalist nation, it appears to be inevitable. So how about this: Lower the price of attending college, and use more taxpayers dollars and government funding. If the government would actually get its act together and pull out of Iraq and cut other ridiculous spending, this would actually work. The government should be more focused on taking care of the people in this nation instead of taking care of people on the other side of the world. And, since everyone seems to be all hyped up over getting as much education as you possibly can, why not make it easier to do so? I consider myself a smart, even brilliant young woman. I’m positive that there are other equally intelligent people, some even smarter than I, who can’t even get into a college because their family can’t afford to send them there. The way everything is set up at this very moment, you need to be rich in order to stay rich. Don’t get what I mean? In order for you to live a good life without flipping burgers for a living, you need to already has a good chunk of money to spend you to college in the first place.
So, I feel that the best way to solve this problem would be to lower the costs of colleges to a slightly more reasonable price. Taxes don’t necessarily need to go up in order to accommodate for this, but the government needs top cut out any unnecessary budget spending they’re doing, and put more of it’s funding into colleges, scholarships, and grants that students can use in order to help pay for tuition. In this country, money shouldn’t come first. Education, and knowledge should instead.
1. High school started before 8am, but now anything before noon is considered “early.”
2. You have more beer than food in your fridge.
3. Weekends start on Thursday.
4. 6am is when you go to sleep, not when you wake up.
5. You know many different ways to cook ramen noodles or macaroni and cheese.
6. The health center gives out free condoms, and people take them… just in case.
7. Instead of falling asleep in class, you stay in bed.
8. You know how late McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Qdoba, etc. are open.
9. You think it’s the weekend on a Wednesday and you don’t know what month it is.
10. You can’t remember the last time you washed your car.
11. Your underwear/sock supply dictates your laundry schedule.
12. You check Facebook/Myspace more than once a day.
13. You get drunk dialed on any night of the week.
14. You wash dishes in the bathroom sink.
15. You’ve fallen off a loft bed.
16. You talk about beer pong like it’s a sport.
17. Finding random people in your house is perfectly normal, and you even sympathize with them… sometimes when you wake up you have no idea where you are.
18. Your primary news sources are the Daily Show and the Colbert Report.
19. You open a beer at 10 am and your roommate asks you if there’s more.
20. The standard of meals per day falls to two, sometimes just one.
21. Your trash is overflowing and your bank account isn’t.
22. You go to Target or WalMart more than 3 times a week.
23. You wear the same jeans for 13 days without washing them. XDDD
24. Your breakfast consists of a coke or cereal bar on the way to class… anything with caffeine will do.
25. Quarters are like gold.
26. Your idea of feeding the poor is buying yourself some ramen noodles.
27. You live in a house with three couches, none of which match.
28. You try to study but seem to procrastinate by eating, going to study breaks, talking to people, etc…
29. You talk to your roommate on instant messenger when you’re both home.
30. You ask people what YOU did last night.
31. Certain things are now deemed “facebook worthy.” When friends take pictures of you, you wonder how long it will take them to post them.
32. You’ve seen a hit and run involving a bicyclist/pedestrian.
33. You see people you know you’ve met but can never remember their names or how you know them.
34. You sleep more in class than in your room
35. Your idea of a square meal is a box of Pop-Tarts.
36. You’ve traveled with bags of dirty clothes.
37. You go home to do your laundry because you’re too poor to pay the $2… or too lazy to go to a change machine.
38. You pay $100 for a book you don’t read once, return it four months later, and get $7.
39. More than 20% of your household furnishings are made from milk crates.
40. You recognize the meat in the dorm soup as yesterday’s meatloaf, and thus decide to eat a nice bowl of cereal – a safe bet for any meal. YEA CEREAL!
41. You use words like “thus” (see #40). I love those papers XDDD
42. You throw out bowls and plates because you don’t feel like washing them.
43. Your beer pong table is nicer than all your other tables.
44. It takes preparation… and 3 people… to take out your garbage.
45. Going to the library is a social event.
46. You wear flip flops in the shower your freshman year… you know why. I started out doing that, but got tired of them slipping off my feet and practically breaking my ankles.
47. You start joining clubs because of the free food.
48. Visits home depend on how much money you have for gas.
49. You skip one class to write a paper for another.
50. You have no idea where your tuition money is going… technology fees? I think not.
51. Bicycles don’t seem as lame as they did in high school. It’s just too bad that I couldn’t bring mine.
52. You stay up late to finish homework then sleep through the class in which it was due.
53. Girls: You’ve balanced your foot on a shampoo bottle to shave. HELLS YES! Don’t forget the shower stall, the shower door, the basket with all of your stuff in it, etc…
54. Your backpack is giving you scoliosis.
55. You’ve written a check for 45 cents or stopped to get $2.00 of gas.
56. Your bill in the bookstore will be comparable to tuition.
57. Going to the mailbox becomes an ego booster/breaker.
58. Most of your T.A.s are foreign…what’s the deal?
59. You never realized so many people are smarter than you.
60. You never realized so many people are more dumb (aka “dumber”) than you.
61. Western Europe could be wiped out by a terrible plague and you’d never know, but you can recite the last episode of your favorite show verbatim.
62. Care packages rank right up there with birthdays. Though I haven’t gotten any yet 
63. You craft ways to make any game into a drinking/stripping game.
64. You meet the type of people you thought only existed in movies.
65. Printers break down only when you desperately need them.
66. Anything can be cooked in a microwave.
67. Two words: bike cops.
68. You have Safe Ride programmed into your phone.
69. Old school Nintendo… and guitar hero… are pretty much the best things ever. OMFG GUITAR HERO HAS SAVED ME FROM DYING OF BOREDOM… and has instead begun to give me freakin carpal tunnel XDDD
70. Going to the grocery at midnight is completely normal.
71. You call restaurants that deliver more than you call your own family.
72. You’ve paid bills over $5… in coins.
73. You can’t imagine life without your computer/cell phone/ ipod.
74. Hoodies and sweatpants become the norm – jeans are considered “dressy” at certain occasions… like school.
75. A canceled class is almost as exciting as Christmas. Sometimes, it’s moreso.
76. Taking a nap in the library is perfectly acceptable.
77. Your professors speak English… as a second language.
78. Your teachers swear in class and no one cares.
79. Candles in your dorm room are considered contraband, but cigarettes are ok.
80. You take condiment packets and napkins from fast food restaurants – hey, they’re free.
81. Betta fish are like your family.
82. You bring back socks from the laundry room that may or may not be yours.
83. You know what people carrying suspiciously heavy backpacks after dark are doing… XDDD
84. The elevators take forever but you’ll wait 10 minutes just so you don’t have to climb stairs.
85. Your roommate asks you to check the weather on your computer when they’re standing 5 feet away from the door.
86. Showers become more of an issue.
87. You press the automatic door opener instead of simply grabbing the handle when you approach a door.
88. Christmas lights seem to be acceptable all year round.
89. Class size doubles on exam days.
90. You donate plasma even though you know it’s pretty sketchy.
91. You are no longer thankful that fire alarms are here to protect you. Stupid fire drills that they do in the morning when I’m trying to sleep…
92. You’ve bought Christmas presents from the book store and charged it to your student account so your parents pay for the gifts because you’re too broke.
93. You begin to include ketchup on your list of acceptable vegetables.
94. You stay on campus for hours in between classes when it’s too cold to walk home. Ummm…. I LIVE on campus.
95. People have to help you kick the vending machine just so you can get your 50 cent bag of chips.
96. There’s always a “question kid” in at least one of your classes, and you really wish someone would just tell him/her to shut the hell up.
97. You steal dishes from the cafeteria so you don’t have to wash your own.
98. Laundry is an all-day event.
99. You no longer find it uncool to take naps. In fact, you quite enjoy them. All the time.
100. It’s illegal to drink in the dorms yet they sell an assortment of shot glasses, beer mugs, tankards, etc. in the bookstore.
101. You find your list of acceptable napping places expanding daily to increasingly uncomfortable locations.
102. You fill out credit card applications for the free food.
103. You’ve eaten cereal out of a cup… with a fork. XDDD
104. Dressing up for Halloween becomes cool again. Dude, it’s ALWAYS been cool.
105. You know at least one person who has dropped his/her cell phone into a toilet.
106. You hang multiple shirts on the same hanger to save space/money.
107. You become increasingly annoyed with the “old” people in class – props to them for going back to college but they generally ask really, really annoying questions.
108. You admire people’s alcohol bottle shrines.
109. You set your clock 5-10 minutes ahead so you can potentially make it to class on time.
110. You eventually realize that setting your clock ahead makes no difference to you and you’re still late.I just set my alarm extra early so I can get up.
111. You check ratemyprofessor.com (or something of the like) before choosing your class schedule.
112. You text faster than you type.
113. You only find out a class is cancelled after you get there and sit for about ten minutes.
114. You actually start using coupons, especially those school coupon books.
115. You open canned food and eat it… out of the can. It’s gross, but it gets the job done.
116. You run out of black ink and, instead of buying a new ink cartridge, decide blue is a nice substitute… adds a little flair.
117. You have numbers in your phone with labels like “Sketchy Steve” and “Alcohol Guy.” “Cara from Track” lol
118. The food in your fridge may or may not be older than your little brother.
119. The words “google” and “wikipedia” have become verbs. And you use them… quite often. Mom’ll vouge for me there.
120. The names Morgan, Jim, Jack, and Jose could aptly describe either who you were with last night or what you had to drink.
121. You fill your empty two-liter bottles with pop from the school cafeteria. XDDD why not?
122. You have a drinking buddy who can hold the most intellectual, deep conversations when drunk. Unfortunately, neither he/she nor you can remember most of it later.
123. Your floor has been dirty to the point that you’ve had to brush your feet off before putting on socks or getting into bed.
124. You’re all for the free samples at grocery stores.
125. Energy drinks become your new best friends.
126. You realize that taking summer classes pretty much negates the fun connotation of “summer.”
127. You know exactly how much food will fit into a mini-fridge. Not enough.
128. You realize that said mini-fridge does NOT freeze ice cream. That too.
129. You’ve made a sandwich on or eaten food off of your $1500 laptop.
130. You finish reading this and wonder how you can procrastinate next. LOL. I will use this list everytime I have something to do.
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haha, I did two for being in Upstate New York, and I did one for Enemy Territory (which I will add links for later). You knew I had to do one for college. Oh, and I bolded the ones that applied to me.
Infectious mononucleosis, (also known as the kissing disease, or Pfeiffer’s disease, in North America as mono and more commonly known as glandular fever in other English-speaking countries) is seen most commonly in adolescents and young adults, characterized in teenagers by fever, sore throat, muscle soreness, and fatigue.
The typical symptoms and signs of mononucleosis are:
* Fever—this varies from mild to severe, but is seen in nearly all cases.
* Tender and enlarged/swollen lymph nodes—particularly the posterior cervical lymph nodes, on both sides of the neck.
* Sore throat—White patches on the tonsils and back of the throat are often seen
* Fatigue (sometimes extreme fatigue)
ahem My symptoms at this moment (it’s day 2)...
– Tender and enlarged swollen lymph nodes (the posterior cervical lymph nodes, to be exact) – Sore throat (not pathces yet… it’s only day 2) – Fatigue… extreme fatigue…
Some patients also display:
* Enlarged spleen (splenomegaly, which may lead to rupture) and/or liver (hepatomegaly)
* Petechial hemorrhage
* Abdominal pain
* Aching muscles
* Headache
* Loss of appetite
* Jaundice
* Depression
* Weakness
* Skin rash
* Dizziness or disorientation
* Uncontrolled shaking at times
* Dry cough
* Enlarged Prostate
* Supra-orbital oedema—the eyes become puffy and swollen—may occur in the early stages of infection
– Muscle ache (I know I’m sore from track, but I
can tell what’s from track, and what’s not, and I’m achy as in not from track… plus my body feels like it weighs a ton)
-Headache (a really nice one, I might add… not a migraine yet, thank God) – Loss of appetite? (Actually, that’s true, because I’m not as hungry as I would be normally… which sucks because I gave blood yesterday
_) – Weakness (again, my body feels like it’s a block of lead) – Dizziness/disorientation (well, I do feel dizzy, but I thought that was from my headache?) – Uncontrolled shaking (well, that’s from the fact that I gave blood, and that I haven’t been eating much since then)
So… yea… I went in to get tested for strep throat… but I was thinking about it more… I hope I don’t have mono. That would REALLY screw me over for the semester. But then again…
Symptoms of strep throat include:
* Sore throat
* Red and Black patches in the throat.
* Difficulty swallowing
* Tender cervical lymphadenopathy
* Red and enlarged tonsils
* Halitosis
* Fever of 101 F/38C or greater
* Rash [1]
* Frequent cold chills
* Absence of cough
* White spots on tonsils
* Desquamation (peeling skin on fingertips) a few weeks after treatment
– Sore throat (uhhh… duh?) – Difficulty swallowing (yup) – Tender cervical lymphadenopathy (if it’s the same thing as tender posterior cervical lymph nodes, then yes) – Red and enlarged tonsils (were they red when the nurse checked them? I don’t recall) – Halitosis (I’ve always had bad breath
XDDD) – Frequent cold chills (yep, though I don’t have a fever) – Absence of cough (yup, definitely)
...
Hopefully, I’m over-reacting.