Real Edumacation

Firstly, I am so sorry it's been awhile. The last couple months have been crazy and I was searching for a little inspiration of my own.

I graduated about a month ago. That was a very surreal experience for me. I've learned a lot in the last four years of high school, especially to prepare me for college. However, high school doesn't do much to prepare you for the "real world." In the last month I've learned an awful lot about that reality, so I thought I'd share my experiences.

First, when people tell you that money isn't everything...well...it may not be everything, but it sure is a lot of things. Especially when you have none. I always laughed when my mom warned me that I'd be a poor college student, but now I see the reality of it.

I'm paying for my own education, and even though I received my university's top scholarship (full tuition), it still leaves about ten thousand dollars a year for everything else. I'm hoping to be a Resident Assistant, which would help with about three fourths of that, but there are still ten thousand dollars to be paid off in my first year. That is a lot of dough, especially when I still need a car and all kinds of supplies for living on campus. Every dollar counts.

Second, no one wants to hire a college student. I got one job interview this summer and no call back after that. McDonalds didn't even call. So I had to buy a car with only my graduation funds, and not just a car, but plates, registration, the title transfer, and insurance too.

Third, buying a car is not fun, not exciting, and is probably one of the worst things to do ever. Not only did I have to seek out the very few cars in my price range, but I had to do it by going to every dealership within twenty miles and then some. A lot of dealerships didn't even have cars in my college budget range. Calling an ad from the paper resulted in nothing as it was already gone. And then...I found one. There was a car with a sign in it sitting in the library parking lot. It looked like a nice car and it had my one hopeful: air conditioning.

I called the number and scheduled a test drive. My dad and I took the car for a spin and he took a look under the hood. He poked around for a while and pointed a few things out to me. The car was sitting in my driveway and I had a great feeling about it....WHAP! There's the "no." There was an indication of a very serious problem with the engine that would be a pretty pricey fix.

However my dad is anything if not thorough, so he called the seller's husband and spoke to him about the car. Turns out the guy had already rebuilt the engine to prevent the engine problem. Mom came in and told me that I had a car. The next day I signed the title and took my car home. Within four days I had seen, test driven, bought, and registered my car. It was pretty wild.

I named my car Penny after it's color and swore to take immaculate care of it so it would last through college.

Life's lessons are pretty tough when you're learning them. They're definitely harder than high school. The rewards those lessons bring, though, are forever. The knowledge gained through these three problems will be used frequently (hopefully not too frequently) in the future. Stay positive and let life's lessons inspire.