When I was nine years old, a story I wrote made the cover of Guide magazine. The day I received my three free copies and a $40 check in the mail, I knew there was no better feeling than having my very own words in print. From that day on, there was nothing I wanted more than to be a writer. So naturally, when college came around, I declared an English major. But alas, my goals of a B.A. were short lived, as the harsh reality of the job market and indebted America slapped me hard across the face.
We are drowning in debt, and that may actually be an understatement. The current total student loan debt is at $1.2 trillion, with $3,000 of accrued student debt every second. It's no wonder students are having to choose between the majors they want and the ones that will feed them. We are stressed out, more so than our parents and those before us. A 2008 study showed that 1 in 5 undergraduates is constantly stressed.Those numbers are likely to be much higher now, eight years later. The stress of doing well in school is extreme, we have to do well in order to receive a decent job with a competitive salary in order to pay the loans we took out. As an immigrant and first generation college student, the pressure was very, very real to me.
My first summer home from university felt like a fifteen week, continuous punch in the gut. I had accepted that my pursuit of a degree in the arts would not provide me the life my parents had sacrificed everything for me to have. The first financial risk my parents ever took was sending me to college, and it was my duty to pay them back tenfold for their selflessness.
Terrified of choosing the wrong career option, countless hours were devoted to learning everything there was to know of potential career options. I studied the undergraduate academic bulletin to the point of memorizing all the class requirements for the majority of studies. My mom would often find me in my room at night with the lights off, crying over a computer screen that had once again failed to tell me what to do with my future.
The effects of the extreme stress I was under, went from a mental burden to a physical one as well. My hair started falling out and I began showing symptoms of celiac disease and other food allergies. I was fighting myself over my passion and being able to pay my loans, and it was literally breaking me. I was afraid, and I still am, of the future. My fear was enough to start my second year of school as an accounting, finance, and international business major. And though I was happy, I am happy, with my studies, but I am not passionate.
We have drawn the short end of the stick. We are students of the most expensive higher education system in the world. We cannot control the time we were born or the location of where we grew up, which can appear to render us helpless. But the moment we allow ourselves to believe we are investing in something not worth its value is the moment we allow the debt collectors and deeply flawed government education policies to win. We accept that the circumstances that we cannot control are bigger than our dreams, our goals, and our rights to a successful future. In reality, we are privileged to be able to pursue a degree, especially an American degree, which holds so much value on a global scale.
I chose to continue my studies at a ridiculously expensive university because I have professors who genuinely care for me, who pray with and for me. I have friends whom I love dearly and whom I cannot imagine not having by my side. I have worked with and helped people all around the world and in my own community. And while I can barely remember a thing or two from microeconomics, I have learned a number of valuable life lessons throughout the years, lessons that have opened doors to opportunities I never even imagined.
I may no longer be an English major and my stress levels still dangerously flirt with my health, but I haven’t given up.
I may end up crawling to the finish line of graduation, but my dreams will still be intact.That 9-year-old girl is still just as passionate as the day at the mailbox. I will continue to write no matter how many tax forms and spreadsheets are placed in front of me.
A smart investor knows that a diversified portfolio provides the best long-term return on investment. Look around, there are so many amazing opportunities right at your fingertips, waiting to be utilized! So in the end, I believe that it is all worth it, but only because I choose to make it worth it.
