College life full of debt, financial lessons

by Jaclyn Roco
Arts and Entertainment Editor

The summer days are here, and as I stare at this blank screen rapidly filling up with black text, my mind whirls with the possibilities that may come up during the vacation.

Of course these possibilities will not revolve around "fun in the sun".

As a college student living on my own, I have to find some way of paying back the enormous debt I have accumulated thanks to the still rising tuition of ULV. (Will there ever be an end to higher prices--gas or tuition, it doesn't matter. Why couldn't we get higher wages as well?)

It's ridiculous how many college students find themselves in debt because of the fact that they choose to move toward higher education.

It's even more ridiculous that we have to pay to graduate, pay to step into the real world and even more sopay our way to get out of this debt.

Debt, debt and even more debt. That's the word for today folksdebt.

And what makes debt? Money of course, and the fact that all of society today revolves around this green substance we trap within the dark confines of our wallets.

Have you noticed how much money changes people?

Well, I certainly have.

Money tends to make people greedy and less inclined to care about anything else.

Sometimes money becomes a trap. How many other students have dropped out of college to be able to work and make money earlier?

But of course, I can't be too negative towards earning money; that's why I'm in college, right?

I'm in college so that I'll be able to graduate to get a good job, so that I'll be able to pay back the debt I have accumulated over the years when I am older.

Whewthat was a rather long sentence, but that's how much I've been thinking of the unfairness of it all.

I don't think it's fair that some college graduates, who worked their way to the top in school, have not yet been able to find a job.

So of course, with all their debts piling up in wads of crumpled bank statements, how will they be able to pay it all back?

Is it that there seems to be more students graduating than jobs available? I believe so.

Well then, what about the rest of us, who have yet to graduate?

What was the purpose in shoveling out thousands of dollars into education, if we could have gotten a head start ahead of the others?

I could have had a good job by now! Some people seem to get lucky; they don't have a degree, yet they are able to earn more than those who do have one.

It's just so strange to think that maybe my goals and dreams are all mixed up.

I want to pay back my debts, but I also want to succeed.

It's just too bad then that this world seems to revolve around money, instead of what life should be based on: appreciation of what we already have.

Someone once said that life is too short. How true is that?

Until people- especially college students- realize what they have at the moment, then money will continue to rule their lives.

Sure it would be nice to have all of the things that other people have, but why waste time yearning and working toward these riches when the thing that matters most is right in front of you. Try looking in the mirror; who do you see?

Jaclyn Roco, a junior journalism major, is arts and entertainment editor of the Campus Times. She can be reached by e-mail at rocojax@yahoo.com.