I’m such a sucker. Each month nearly half of my paycheck goes to paying back college loans, and I resent those bills the most: dreaming of the kind of life I would assuredly be leading without that debt holding me down. Would I be traversing Thailand with nothing but a tattered backpack and a charmingly freckled face? Would I be learning new languages, how to ballroom dance, the preparation of delicious time-consuming recipes? Would I have more time to write? I’m sure those loans are the reason that I don’t write more often.
And yet whenever a wide-eyed Bard freshman, making minimum wage (plus free pizza), calls me and asks for a donation to my esteemed alma mater, whatever I can afford, I reply “. . . can I write you a check?”
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Every time that 845 area code has come up on caller ID this week, I throw my cell phone out the window in fear.
hey — i had this job at Kenyon. Tell them a funny story about Bard. Something reminiscent and amusing to both of you because of referential excitement. You’ll make their night.
And then, in the midst of mutual laughter…CLICK!
Yeah I’m still paying those loans and will be forever. I donate to rich my highschool because they gave me lots of aid when I went there, but Bard can kiss my poor ass.
A couple years ago Bard got me on the phone and I promised I’d write a $10 check, and then I got a letter in the mail 3x a year after that asking for their $10. So they pretty much spent what I owed them on postage, ha ha. Sigh.
Sorry, that should read ‘I donate to my rich highschool’. My highschool is super rich. They paid to send me to Japan. I owe them big. And apparently, it’s mostly the poor alumni that donate. Go figure.
It’s like how you get more halloween candy from the poorer neighborhoods. Silly poor people! Always giving!
Also, before people start telling me to consolidate my loans already or get a better-paying job, I should clarify that it’s more like a third of my income, not half.
But seriously, why am I shredding ACLU requests and granting Bard the favor? I need to take another look at my priorities. I can live in a world without a new science building, but I guess time will tell if I can live without some of those civil liberties.
Deferring loans during graduate school: awesome, or secretly terrifying? Another question we leave in the hands of time.
you haven’t consolidated your loans yet?
No no, they’re consolidated. Hellz yez.
that means you’re old
Even if my dad made me do it?
Can I defer my loans through life?
Listen here: even if you had no student debt, money would FIND places to go. Just like when you’re broke and your car gets towed, you FIND money to get it out of the impound lot.
That said, you prob should have gone to the U and gotten a job in finance… then you really would be traveling the world to warm destinations…. oh, wait- you ARE going to travel the world to warm destinations!! Ha, nevermind. Looks like you’re in a good spot, U education/finance job or not!! Now whether this has implications for your writing, I dunno…
Sidenote, make sure to get those receipts for the donations to the po’. Write that shit off come April 15! And INVEST your 401k already!! And…. oh hell, artsy people and balance sheets are like oil and water- or so it seems.