I'm not looking for a handout. I'm not demanding an easier life. I'm not calling for a free ride on the train of life. I'm asking for a chance. I'm asking for the opportunity to succeed in a world that currently seems to be wholly against me. I'm asking for the ability to do something with my life other than just 'giving money to the man.'

I don't just "want free stuff" because I know that anything good promised by a politician is probably guaranteed to never happen. I'm not a lazy millennial syphoning my parent's money and demanding the world give me what I'm owed. I grew up in a small town in Oklahoma in a poor to middle class family. I lived on a farm, so I can't remember a time in my life when I wasn't doing some form of work. I went to a public high school where I received free lunches. I was accepted to an in-state university on several scholarships, and the rest I am paying for in student loans. I am financially independent. I pay my own bills and buy my own food and clothes. I am responsible for myself.

And it has taken over my life. I can't eat out with friends on the weekend because then I wouldn't be able to make my car insurance payment. I sometimes donate plasma to buy my schoolbooks. I work two steady jobs and other odd jobs when I can just to make ends meet. But the ends aren't meeting. They fizzled off somewhere between my car payments and my ever-increasing debt. I will be lucky to graduate college under $50,000 in student loan debt with a starting interest rate of 8%. Calculating this debt and the minimum monthly payments I will be making after graduation, I will consider myself blessed to pay it off before I hit the age of retirement. This is not what I consider to be an affordable education.

I am 21 years old. Teenagers think they want to be me, and older adults think that as a female college student, I am spending daddy's money on booze and boys. No one could be further from the truth. Instead of having fun and enjoying college, money consumes my days and keeps me awake at night. My body tenses when I have to apply for another student loan, and every semester, the thought of dropping out comes to the forefront of my mind.

I don't support Bernie Sanders because I am entitled or privileged. I don't believe I am owed anything, nor am I asking for a government handout. I too believe that higher education is a privilege. But I believe it is a privilege that every young adult with good grades and a desire for a degree should have the opportunity to be educated without the fear of a debt they can never repay. If socialism is this belief in equal opportunity, then call me socialist. In our society, a bachelor's degree is now the equivalent of a 1990's high school diploma. A decent job demands a degree. I support Bernie Sanders because I believe there is more we can do in the way of student debt and higher education for everyone, and we should be doing it. I support Bernie Sanders because the real first step to making America "great again" is allowing everyone the opportunity to be university educated, and I personally cannot wait for this revolution.