Please Hold...I'm a Very Busy Girl

Real Facebook status of a former roomie still in college...

Twin #2 is "on hold with student aid... 20 mins and counting"

I remember that. Calling, waiting, asking "where is my money?". My sophomore year I received a letter under my door that read something along the lines of "If the university does not receive $3,000 by Friday 12:00pm you will be asked to evacuate your on campus housing". Thanks guys.

Now my loan company and I have a different relationship. When it's time to pay them back they don't make you wait for hours at a time to talk to someone. You get bumped right to the front of the line. In fact, they're calling me! I'm so popular. I imagine my name, phone number, and social are posted somewhere in their coffee room. I kind of want to repay the favor and put them on hold. We'll make it a true role reversal.

"Thank you for doing business with the Ice Queen. Your call is very important to her and she will be with you shortly."

I remember the days of waking up every morning and checking that email with the subject line "Direct Deposit of Tuition Refund". I think my last year of college was the worst. I was student teaching and started 2 weeks earlier than Penn State. Of course, Penn State didn't care when I started. They weren't going to give me my loan refund until it was convenient enough for them to do so. I worked all summer in my moms office and it was a rough summer for the family so I was splitting most of our household bill with her. I went back to school with a money order for $267.75 for my first month's rent and a $20 bill ($10 of which went into my gas tank immediately upon arriving in my empty apartment).

I had to make it for 2 weeks with that left over money. To this day I couldn't tell you how the hell I did it, but I did. I went to a gas station and bought a bag of pretzels and began rationing them so that my rabbit wouldn't die of starvation. The sign of a true bleeding heart...putting animals before myself.

Now I'm not as broke but I have to say that it's pretty close. It's an interesting feeling when you realize after the fact that everyone in high school was right...you couldn't afford to go to that big name university.

Do I regret it? Not for a second.