So tonight I finished my book and had no excuse to not do something useful in my house so I started cleaning. And cleaning isn't something that particularly occupies my mind, so while I was cleaning my room I started thinking about finances and paying back my student loans. This led me to a thought that has still bothered months and months after it was said. And I'm still angry about it. In my American Foundations class we were talking about economics and the government's debt, etc. The whole big mess. We talked about some of the biggest contributors to debt. I know most people have a strong opinion on this topic even if they aren't that in to politics. Financial hardship can leave scars that still twinge throughout your life.
As a side note, my teacher told us his opinion, but he was really good about explaining everything, not just his point of view. He was a really great teacher. As another side note, I was in a class full of freshman. Which was a semester-long trial for me. It was horrible.
Anyways, we talked about stuff like food stamps for a long time. He asked for opinions. Was this something we needed to keep or is this something we should cut back with. Of course I'm at a school where they teach that you don't have debt unless you're dying and even then maybe you should just pray about it. Not saying its wrong... but I think young students get the wrong idea about the world sometimes. (Like the obnoxious kid. I have no idea what his name is, he annoyed me so much every class period as the self-proclaimed loudest person in the room and tried tuning him out as much as possible. ) So said obnoxious kid raised his hand and said that we should cut it. If people are dependent on the government than we need to get rid of it because obviously those people aren't looking for jobs, they just like free money. And it made me so angry. I wanted to stand up on my soap box and rave about how some people actually need it. They work hard and look for jobs constantly and a lot of people don't have church or family even to turn to. Their children would just starve and they'd lose their house/ apartment. I'll agree with the next person that the "nanny"state has gotten out of hand. But don't you dare say every person who's struggling and getting help from the government isn't looking. My family has struggled a lot and my parents worked and still work their ever living butts off to raise us and sometimes we've had to have help. When my dad lost his job (from budget cuts at the school I think), I remember him working on applications everyday. Every. Day. I hope my parents aren't mortified by this post, I don't know if anyone will read it anyways. But it's to make a point. Money has always been a really tender subject in our family. I wanted to punch the kid (it didn't help I suppose that I already despised him.) And then I wanted to rant about the entitled brats who come to school at BYUI because their parents worked their butts off too but with more well-payed jobs so they get whatever they want (that's another entire angry rant of its own). People seriously drive brand new corvettes and mustangs here. I've seen them. But we get that rant a lot from teachers anyways.
Professors here are really easy on students more often than not because they care and want to see them exceed, but its easy to use against them. I've seen that too. And the professors who don't act that way are really bothered by it. And no, I'm not jealous of their corvettes, and no I don't think that I deserve a cut of their wealthy parents stuff. If I have a corvette its going to be because I bought it myself. It just frustrates me that I know most of these people didn't. Their parents bought it for them. And then they act like they know whats going on in the world. And I don't know a lot, but I've figured out some stuff that the people a few years younger and richer than me obviously haven't.
Then the subject came to financial aid. My professor asked if students were contributing to the debt in a bad way or if education was a really important thing to be using money for. I had been talking with Kerry about this and so I raised my hand. I said basically that we were contributing to the debt tremendously. I was sitting in my chair because of student loans. My parents couldn't help me and so I took out loans. I was then going to say that most people in the entire room had taken some money from the government. Grants don't come out of thin air. But the word loan is like a time bomb on campus and so this dippy girl raises her hand and interrupts me by saying, "well, I'm going to school all by myself."
Are you serious? Good for you... You missed my point completely by interrupting me and making me feel like the scum of the earth in the classroom. I was really embarrassed. And honestly, to this day it bothers me. A lot. Yes I mentioned loans. But General Authorities have said its ok to take out loans to go to school. And you know what? When members of the church are taught something over and over like avoid debt whenever possible, they get into this one track mind (and judge people on their own standards). And I keep having the sneaking suspicion that she was just saying she didn't have any debt. Even if she didn't: grants? scholarships? parents? Those are not all by yourself. I don't know anyone with a job good enough to pay for all of college and still be able to live throughout the year and still go to class. A scholarship is almost by yourself, at least its not from the government, but it really still isn't. And grants ARE. Or maybe she was trying to make the point that not everyone takes money from the government. She's one in ...thousands? or more? Most people take free money. And lets be honest that's what grants look like. And if everyone is taking it, yeah, its effecting the stinking debt of our country. Its dumb to say its not. So the moral of this story is, I stay angry at dumb people for months I guess. Or that the financial conversation in universities is not doing well. And that stupid girl, and the obnoxious kid can go suck a nasty toe. Because I still don't like them and their mean, ignorant comments. ~By the way, I think my class decided that school was an important expense. I honestly don't know what my opinion is on it. I would probably have a better opinion if I saw all the numbers and understood them.
On a good note, my room is cleaner, you can see my floor, my laundry is all folded, and I have clean sheets on my bed. Yay! I suppose I'll have to write something happy next time. haha
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