What I Wish I Had Known

I'm in the process of going back to school. Since I've spent the majority of the last decade fighting the good fight, I never really thought that this would happen again. Of course, I've always said I would do it. And there was two years that I studied my behind off trying to become a traditional midwife which involved more education than I ever anticipated. But I never thought I would actually be attending a legitimate college again.

I did it when I was younger. In fact, I "went back to school" quite a few times. I did it so many times that I got myself into a great deal of debt. Terrible debt. Twenty-grand of useless debt. I managed to accumulate 23 credits. I essentially paid a grand per credit for a measly 23 credits. Ridiculous.

When I was 20 years old, no one ever sat me down to talk about financing my education. They just slid a piece of paper in front of me, I signed it, and next thing I knew I had paid for my tuition and books and there was an overage check in my pocket. No one bothered to point out that even though tuition at a community college was less than 2,500 a semester, I was taking out ten-grand in loans that I didn't need. I figured if the school's financial aid office was going to offer me that much, that's what I should take out. Yeah, not the greatest thought process I've ever had.

My financial aid award letter arrived in the mail today. It seems I will be spending the next few days doing math (which may be why I have avoided college for all these years). Maybe this time I will only borrow what I need. well, maybe that and a little more because I'd love to have a laptop that doesn't randomly shut down.