Saturday, October 30, 2004
whatever happened to the starving college student?
No, seriously. I used that as an excuse today, when I was going out for dinner. "Nah, I can't go there, I am a starving college student without any money!" Yes, I realize it is cliche, but is it not also true?
I see so many kids - myself included - that spend a whole lot of money at college. Since I got here, I have been out to eat, coffee, bought an expensive array of electronics, had a car stolen, bought new clothes, the list goes on...
All of this I am able to pay for. Granted, my parents ARE paying for the college part of this expereience, but whatever happened to the times when kids in college didn't have any money?
I hear my parents tell stories about how they would walk by and smell the peet's coffee, but not be able to buy it. I hear how people live off of 2 packages of 13 cent ramen noodles per day for months at a time. Granted, I see people eat ramen, and I do myself, but then these people can go out and drop money on alcohol, or to see a band on campus, or whatever it is that takes precedence of their cash.
The reason I say this is that I am in a not so well paying job working not so many hours, and I haven't seen a paycheck. If it weren't for me working this last summer, I would have no spending money at all. I will be thankful in a few days to get my paycheck, but seriously. How is a kid supposed to keep up with the trend of today when I would much rather save my money? I haven't gotten money from my parents other than 2 reimbursement checks for books and the such - since May. I lived alone over the summer, paying for my own food, gas, movies, soap, you name it, but now in college, I have spent more money than I did all summer - and I have room and board paid for! This is insane!
I guess the moral of this is that from now on I am going to watch where I spend my money, and try to conserve (do I really like starbucks that much anyway?) so that I can pay for things like snowboard bindings, gas up to the mountain, and maybe even my fifth year of college's tuition :)
