BUT! If 23,125 people each donate $1, one 22-year old woman with a passion for theatre and sometimes vodka can move out of her childhood bedroom and on to bigger and brighter things because she (that's me) will have paid off her (my) student loans.
Before you say anything, yes. I am shamelessly asking people to donate money to me over the internet so that I can pay off my student loans. Do they really know where their money is going ? No. They don't. But what with all the dishonesty in the world today, you have to pick and choose who to trust, and I obviously think you should pick me.
I'm Not Drunk
I really am an honest person when I'm not drunk, which I'm not right now, so I will do everything in my power to make you believe in my cause. In fact, the first thing I'm gonna do to ease your minds is take a screen shot of my loan payment requirements:
And for those of you who forgot your magnifying glass (shame on you):
How This Blog Came to Be
Yesterday I was surfing the internet, sitting around in my Lizzie McGuire-inspired bedroom eating string cheese like I usually do, and I googled “help/ideas for paying off student loans.” Because although I just now finally got a job (thanks for asking, it's a temp job working for Verizon greeting people who come into the store to yell at me for their bill being too expensive or their phone not working because they dropped it in a puddle),... I have to start paying off that godsforsaken 20-something thousand dollars in December. Happy birthday to me. And honestly, I'm scared shitless. Luckily, I believe in fate, and I came across a story about a woman named Karyn Bosnak who had $20,000 in credit card debt (which isn’t even close to as cool as having $23,125 in student loan debt if you ask me), and she started a website asking people to go balls to the wall and donate money toward helping her pay it off. And lo and behold, it worked, and she even wrote a book about it, which I’m sure made her even more money, etc...
So. My new plan is to completely rip off her idea and exchange some sort of blogging wisdom for cold, hard, (read: Paypal) cash. See my About (k)no(w) subject page for more info about what I plan on bringing to the table in exchange for your generosity.
The Pity Party Part (You Can Skip This, I Won't Feel Bad)
The sad part about that figure up there? My parents most graciously took out even more than that to cover the other half of my tuition and fees. And the reason it cost so much? Because even though I grew up my entire life thinking I was something special, that I was of above-average intelligence, or particularly driven... I'm not that special, being white and barely middle-class and not very well-connected. At least, I wasn't special enough to get any scholarships (okay I lied, I think I got one for $300 once, which is hardly enough to offset my tuition... in fact, that's about half of one month's rent in Boulder). I also took out the absolute bare minimum in loans... I had a job all four years of college, sometimes I had two jobs, and I went to rehearsals for plays every night from six to ten. I'm not completely innocent, I'll admit it. I had a lot of fun in college. I partied just as much as any Buff. I became a slave to the fashion goddess. I even did a stint in a sorority, which cost me way more than I was expecting it to. But I graduated with a 3.5, and I was planning on taking my acting degree and the $100 I had saved (minus the sausage biscuit sandwich I bought at McDonald's... $98.67) to New York City to be on Broadway. More or less.
But due to unforseen circumstances that I'd rather not get into, instead I'm stuck here in Nowhere, Colorado, living with my parents in what has to be the most culture-less city in the world. And I can't even afford one pair of these adorable ruched panties from Victoria's Secret that I want so badly! It's a minor setback being here, but college gave me an education in more ways than just in the classroom. College is filled with people who are competing to accomplish their dreams. These people, in some sort of hive mentality, motivate everyone to be the best they can be and keep reaching for the stars.
But when you leave that support system, no matter how subconscious it is, and instead you're sitting on your couch watching reruns of The Nanny while your mom brings you ramen... each day seems like you're drifting farther and farther away from that dream. And when you have your student loans hanging over your head, you wonder if you'll ever be able to move to a city where you can afford both to pay rent + $264.93 a month, even though the whole point of getting the degree was so that you could afford to pay your rent and everything else you need... But being an artist is a different story. You can't dedicate the time necessary to be an artist and be a doctor or even an entry-level whatchamacallit. You can be a waitress or a greeter at Verizon, maybe, if they'll work around your rehearsal schedule. And in this economy, you're competing against people who have been waitresses for ten years. Is it my fault that I wanted to go to school for acting instead of getting what some people call a "real" degree that might have been more practical and more lucrative? Absolutely. But how can I be faulted for being one of the few people who wanted to do what truly made them happy?
So I told myself there was a way for me to be happy and do what I'm passionate about. And I believe I may have found it, however unconventional and panhandleresque it may be.
The Bottom Line: Donate or Don't.
Well, I'm assuming since you've made it this far, you haven't run away screaming and you may even be considering giving me a buck. Here comes the good news:
Look at how happy I look!
I created a donation cause through a great website called ChipIn.com . This site is great because it uses Paypal to collect funds, keeping everything private for everyone on both sides. Plus it keeps track of my progress toward my goal!
Here's the actual website for my ChipIn donation page http://knowsubject.chipin.com/paying-for-college
And there will always be a widget on the right of my blog, keeping track of progress, and giving you guys a direct link to donate.
This is it, I Promise
If I can ever make this work, and I finally get my loan paid off, I will start many other ChipIn donation causes, most of them for Africa, and become the philanthropist I've always wanted to be but have been too poor to be. So there's always the prospect of that if you decide to donate!
Here's the actual website for my ChipIn donation page http://knowsubject.chipin.com/paying-for-college
And there will always be a widget on the right of my blog, keeping track of progress, and giving you guys a direct link to donate.
This is it, I Promise
If I can ever make this work, and I finally get my loan paid off, I will start many other ChipIn donation causes, most of them for Africa, and become the philanthropist I've always wanted to be but have been too poor to be. So there's always the prospect of that if you decide to donate!
