"Are there scholarships or payment plans offered for tuition?" I asked. The woman plainly said, "No."
"Well um... Okay. How am I suppose to pay for it exactly?"
"Most of our students get funds from their families who are willing to help them out, or from fundraising."
Irritated with her answer, I told her that I would call back when I had more information and questions and hung up. It was the same irritated feeling I get when people ask why I don't have a car. Their families pay for their tuition? Pfft. Granted that it isn't a lot of money, the point is that I know that no one in my family can afford half if my tuition. What's going to happen if I can't pay for this by August because I didn't make enough money over the summer and my parents can't help me? I can't pull $3,000 out from thin air. What's going to happen If I can't pay for anything in my future simply because I wasn't Born with a silver spoon in my mouth?
I feel like most people don't understand how difficult it can be walking through school and passing people my age with their new car keys, MacBook pros, 4.0 GPAs, sports trophies, full-ride scholarships and acceptance letters, and they can be okay with going home after school and studying or hanging out with their friends.
75 percent of them are being taught by their parents that free lunch and welfare is wrong and should be eliminated.
It's as if each person I pass has a silver-paved road and tools to make it through. And me...
Trust.
All I can do is trust.
This is one of the most complex obstacles I've come to, but like a rock on a rock wall, it's more simple to overcome when you aren't standing there trying to figure out how to move past it. You just move up. You just climb.
I'm just a tiny paint drop in a big picture.
Maybe I'm a blue paint drop asking why the paint drop next to me is gray.
I know it's tough. I'm 27 with over $30,000 of debt and 2 more loans to take out before I graduate and do not-at-all-sure-what with my degree. I didn't grow up with a silver-spoon either, and my parents paid (usually on credit) for what they could, but that wasn't much. If not for the Lord, I'd be living in a cardboard box under a bridge. And quite frankly, outside of the miraculous, I don't have any idea how I am even making it now.
ReplyDeleteI can offer a few practical suggestions (take em or leave em, just puttin em out there) : if IHOPU is accredited you can for sure get help from FAFSA. If not, they might actually still be able to help (though I'm not 100% on that). It takes forever to fill out though and you'll need a lot of info about your income and your mom's. This summer, work as much as you can. Not just one job if possible. You will not have a social life or much fun, but it will be worth it. While you are young and have the energy to do it, work every moment that you aren't sleeping or at church. And that really is as awful as it sounds, but it works. Once you're in your 20s you'll find the ability to do that to be far less, so get what you can while you can. And save as much of it as possible. If you can do without something, do it, and if you can use a coupon or get a discount on something you must have, do it.
And while doing that, do exactly what you said and trust God. If He wants you to move out of state to go to this school, then He will pay the bill. He is faithful to fund His work, and more than that, He is faithful to bless His children. The Bible says in Psalms "I've never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread." You are the righteous so you will not be forsaken and you won't have to beg.
And a side note about free lunch and welfare - most people using those are not at all like you. Their parents don't work unless it's dealing drugs, and they likely don't or won't either. They've been raised with a government spoon in their mouth and have no aspirations to do better... and this is why many people think it's wrong. Welfare if used for people like you who are just legitimately struggling would be a wonderful system. And having been a WIC recipient as a young child, I know it is helpful for those who just can't quite make it.
Anywho, my comment is long and might even be just annoying cause you didn't ask for my input, but I love you like my own little sister and I am praying for you and I want the best for you and for life to not be like this for you... your Daddy owns all the gold and silver and the cattle on a thousand hills (that makes for a buttload of cheeseburgers btw) and He loves you - He won't leave you hanging. :)