NINA BANKS
managing editor
nina.banks@my.tccd.edu
My therapist always reminds me that I’m young and it’s okay to be selfish. Her application of the word isn’t an encouragement to be mean-spirited to others, but to stop wasting my time on relationships, activities or habits that don’t serve me.
When I told my mom this, she agreed wholeheartedly — being that she was an eyewitness to my incessant people pleasing proclivities. She nodded her head and added, “after all, time is money.”
My mom is a tax advisor which has heightened the already present toxic relationship most parents have with money. Please tell me another third grader who knew what IRS stood for. The importance of money was stressed so heavily that she made my little brother and I do a stock market simulator when we were eight and six.
For me and so many others, money is why we are at community college. No shame in the game. This is not a hard-hitting editorial on the elitism behind university. I’ve made my peace and anyone who has a problem with you going the financially route should for yourself should rethink their sense of entitlement.
In general, “college student” is not usually preceded with smart, beautiful or wealthy. We’re broke. Google “broke college student” and be slapped in the face with “struggle recipes” or “adulting guides” from millennials that watch Buzzfeed or Quora articles, presumably from a boomer, that queries why college students are broke.
Times are changing. Cokes don’t have coke, and tuition isn’t a nickel and a blade of grass. It’s starting to look like the only time I will own a house will be in the Sims 4.
However, I hold the privilege that my parents have allowed me to live rent free while I go to school from home with the caveat of good grades and holding a job. Without divulging my routing numbers, I feel fortunate to have had this opportunity. Whereas I know if I went to university right away, I probably wouldn’t have had time to hold a job, much less two.
Many of my peers that went to university straight after high school weren’t able to hold jobs due to the rigorous demands or adjusting to a large lifestyle change, which is completely understandable.
At the end of the day, whatever path you take, make sure it’s the best for you. Even if that means incurring thousands of dollars in debt or graduating debt free. People have done them both for years and survived, and they’ll continue to do so. I’m sure one group is able to comfortably spring for extra guac though.
For the off chance that someone incredibly wealthy is reading this, feel free to Venmo me. I take CashApp or Zelle too, whatever is preferable.
