Poor Student No More

10 confessions for the sake of transparency:

1.  I highly dislike twitter. In fact, I loathe it. Quite surprising since I use it. Maybe I’m just not “up with the times.” Maybe I’m just a fan of organic connections between people. Maybe it’s because I just really hate the word “tweet” and every other spawn of it. Whatever it is, I have to admit that I can’t stand twitter, but it is definitely useful in reaching out to people (I’ll cede that point).

2.  I used to think business created every evil in the world. I almost classified myself as socialist once. I sincerely thought businesses were only in it for themselves — and while this is still sometimes true, I think there is a new generation of entrepreneurs who believe in corporate social responsibility and socially responsible products and practices. Business is simply a creation of value, which in turn leads to development.

3. I love expensive sunglasses. I fight against materialism and I preach about being frugal, but I get weak in the knees when I see a pair of designer sunglasses that are obnoxiously large and cover the majority of my face. Hey, we can’t all be perfect. I’m a work in progress.

4. Sometimes I wish I were a brunette so that people would take me more seriously. I hate when people look at me and write me off as a dumb sorority girl (note - I am in no way saying that sorority girls are dumb, just referring to a very false stereotype). It’s made me quite bitter and rebellious. Now I stay blonde just to prove them wrong — and the fact that I can’t afford to have my hair dyed. In fact, I had a guy on my flight to Raleigh ask me if I knew where Kuwait was. Seriously?

5. I can remember the moment I decided I was going to transfer out of NYU. A homeless man puked on me on the subway and I thought to myself, “There’s no way I’m paying for this.” I also mourned for the pair of shoes that gave their life to save my feet from that vile vomit.

6. I put off making my simple financial statement for weeks. IT’S SO BORING.  And it’s really not fun to look at your cashflow. But I finally did it, and it’s worth it.

7. I still haven’t made a more detailed personal financial statement. This may take a lot more motivation and actually having a more experienced person help me.

8. I almost quit poor student no more. My frustrations and my personal dilemmas (I described these in a previous post) really almost deterred me.

9. 25,000 CHILDREN WILL DIE TODAY FROM PREVENTABLE DISEASES. Shameless plug for international development.

10. I am now $45,000 in debt thanks to a new loan this year! Thanks FAFSA and UNC for lowering my grants!

Peace, love and loans,

Jess