Its Tuesday night, my friends and I are craving tacos, before my friends and I pack into my Subaru Outback to head to the Tacos Chalitos taco truck downtown for some beyond amazing super tacos, we all do the mandatory bank app check on our phones to check how much money we have to spend. Instant disappointment has reached at least two of the four of us because as we click our online view of our checking accounts where we are quick to read behind the money sign, a whopping $1.75. Anyone who attends a university has most likely felt this one time or another.
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Beginning this year at Central, I was far from prepared when it came to finances. I was coming in with $250 in my checking account and not a job anywhere in my future. Little did I know how quickly that $250 would drain out of my account in less than two weeks’ time leaving me with, wait for it…… a negative overdraft balance of $6.57. Something we as college students never want to see when opening the pestering little bank app. That negative balance not only affects your ability to go out with your friends throughout the week, your weekend cheap vodka runs, but it also leaves you with tortillas and the shredded cheese you got from Fred Meyer that’s been sitting in your fridge for the last few weeks. Central isn’t like most larger universities UW or WSU, we have six bars, maybe seven or eight restaurants, no Greek system, and very little shopping, leaving us with two cliché hikes and a bacteria filled pond that we still can’t seem to resist on the hot spring and summer days.
Central has taught me two things how to be creative, but also to enjoy boredom. I’m starting to limit myself to my spending and eating out because the freshman 15 can easily turn into the freshman 30. I get excited about receiving cooking knives, Safeway gift cards, a new vacuum. “Adulting” it’s a real thing. Cheap Vodka runs have turned into cheap beer runs because the beer is cheaper and is much easier to shotgun then to take shots of that fifth of pinnacle most of you get blacked out on during the weekends. Instead of spending my life relentlessly watching Netflix, I hit the gym for two hours where I not only get in some killer exercise but get to watch nearly half naked men lift weights twice my weight, every college girl’s dream. I’ve taken up hobbies like long boarding, painting, and learning how better my beer pong skills.
So incoming college freshman don’t worry -- we have all been there, it’s OK if you have to live off ramen and quesadillas for a week if your bank account reached $3, or your dorm meal plan is up when you have over a month in the quarter. Don’t be afraid to invest yourself in a club, local church, or go to the ever so cheesy college events. I can promise you it only gets better, and by better I mean you go from Coors Light to Corona Extra.
