Confessions of A Working Girl

This was the sky all day today:

At least it didn't start raining till the afternoon.

It's hard to believe that its already November! About two months...and I'll be done with school! Scary.

And here's a picture of Talia that made me laugh and think "she has no lady-like decorum!" or doesn't care... oh, and I did want to say that since I know not everyone loves my dolls as much as I do, I'll make sure that I don't post a picture of them every single day. That's what the other website is for.

That picture was at the library. Speaking of, one of the volunteers at the library made apple fritter. Yum. The topping reminded me of the topping mom puts on the sweet potato and cranberry mix at Thanksgiving. I can't wait for that! ^_^

Starting today, I am making it a goal to post at least a picture a day. I figured I might as well start with a picture of myself, even though I don't usually like those too much. But, I'm wearing a wig today, which makes pictures ok. 

I've taken a couple of pictures, trying to get it right...I'll post two of them, though I think the second one looks better. Just because the first one had more lighting, and so its a little clearer. 

That's probably it for today, since I don't feel like complaining about my homework (whoops, just did, didn't I?)

So, Happy Halloween everyone!

And Merry Samhain, Blessed be for the Wiccan new year.

So apparently it's another hurricane. And a grey backdrop is great for photos

The College will be

Closed from noon

Monday until

7am Wednesday

I think I still have homework due tomorrow though...

little flowerbuds shivering in the wind

Empty campus

Pretty empty parking lot too...

Five more days till I make sure that I post at least a photo a day. But for now, I felt like posting a couple of fall photos that I've taken recently.

Rhi in the leaves! It's fall! ^_^ The building to the right in the background was my dorm last year, and the building to the left in the background is my dorm this year.

I only don't like fall because its sort of an allergy season. >.<

I thought this tree looked so interesting...as if someone has started to spray paint the leaves. "We're painting the leaves red..." oh wait, that was roses. 

And up close. 

One of the reddest trees on campus.

Standing underneath that tree with the sun in my eyes, a few weeks ago. You can tell since in this picture the leaves weren't all red yet.

Right outside the dorm, a few weeks ago.

I think that's all for fall pictures at the moment...I should take more. Or rather, take more that come out well. I do have a couple of not as good pictures... 

There was frost on the ground this morning! So much of it that the baseball diamond out back looked gray instead of tan. But I took a picture of frost touched flowers instead.

So, obviously, I'm really bad at remembering to update this journal. I remember to pray every night, but I can't remember to update with even at least a photo? But I'm going to start. That's my early new year's resolution. Starting Samhain (Oct 31, the wiccan new year) I will post at least a photo every day.

Anyway, updating for now. Well, I'm "graduating" in December. That is, I'll be done with classes in December, but I won't get the piece of paper saying that I have a Bachelor's in Spanish for Business and an Associate's in Criminal Justice until I finish paying off the school. And then there will be all the loans to worry about. But I don't want to think of that yet...

Speaking of Criminal Justice, I had a speech due for that class today. Luckily, it was a group speech. But, because the teacher kept stopping us to add in information, we didn't quite finish, and will have to continue on Thursday. I'll have to talk more too...I was pretty quiet today.  I was nervous though...I was twisting my hands behind my back so hard that I made my arm numb. I don't think anyone noticed...

A photo that I meant to post was from last week when I saw my grandparents. Grandma already decorated for Halloween, a little.

Rhi decided to sit there talking to the witch, so I had to take a photo. ^_^

And here's today's photo:

This is a photo of the back of my dorm (the newest dorm on campus) and the little pavilion they built that's next to it. Also a mountain. I liked the fall colors.

So...after a lot of running around and a lot of heartbreak (I wanted that Bachelor's in Criminal Justice!) I have figured out a way to graduate in December. I changed the Criminal Justice Degree to an Associates, and the Spanish Teacher helped me put all the rest of the classes I needed for the Spanish for Business Degree into my schedule for this semster. So I will now graduate in December. Not with the two Bachelor's I wanted, but with a Bachelor's and an Associates.  I told them that I was not going to walk at commencement, since I'm not even sure if I'll have the $7000 I owe the school payed off by then. I'm still working on that part. But there have been several suggestions, which, while not ideal, would work.

Like. paying what I can as I can and accepting the late fees. The lady at financial aid said that if I did that, and went to see her at the end of December before I leave, we could work out some sort of payment thing...

In any case, that drops the amount of money I need to find from $14, 000 to $7000 which seems a lot more doable...

And for the record, I'm very upset I won't get a Bachelor's in Criminal Justice.

So I'm going back up to school tomorrow. Nothing has been determined, regarding how I'm going to pay for it, but I refuse to leave things as they are. I WILL graduate from Castleton State College with at least one Bachelor's Degree. I'm determined. I made it to Japan and back, so somehow, I will get through this as well.

Monday after classes I will immediately start looking for the Deans at the college--both the ones I have talked to and the ones I have not. I'll make appointments with them to sit down and discuss further options, since I refuse to back down. I am not recieving nearly enough financial aid, in my opinion. The other years I never questioned it, so, this year at least, they should help out.

And plus, they owe me. Somehow, I doubt they'll see it this way, but Castleton (my college) owes me. I was due to spend 6 months in Japan, but, because of the earthquake, they pulled me back after three. I lost money on that, at least $300 or $400 that was non-refundable. And I lost  three months of experiences, and friendships that were just beginning. There's no way I can put a price on that, but I say it should be steep. And I lost $1000 on the plane ticket back, since the site I had bought it through refused to refund it and change it to another one. So Castleton owes me. And they had better pay up in the form of helping me finance this last year of college.

Plus they owe me because when I joined their school, it was nice and small. Now they've added football and more students than they promised they would. So they owe me (and others) for that too. They always claimed to be "the small college with the big heart" and they seem well on the way to reversing that. ...Well, that may be a little harsh. The people there are still really nice, and I do love the school. But, and Castleton, please take this as a warning with the kindest intentions behind it, keeping on at the same pace will make you no different than any one of a million other schools.

I may just be in a cynical mood, since finances are worrying me again. Also credit card debt. And the cost of school books. And should I buy the schoolbooks or wait until I find out what's up with the finances?

I need to stop being "wishy-washy" as Ki calls it. I WILL find a way to pay for school.

Picture of the day: Confusion and worry

I feel like I'm in limbo, a little. It's already been decided (mostly) that I'll go up to school on Sunday...what happens from there though...

At the moment, it looks like I'm hoping to be able to move to being part time and not lose any financial aid. By doing that, I should still get a Spanish for Business Bachelor's at the end of the semester. I think....

The way things are going, I'm not going back to college this year. I have been turned down for five seperate student loans (for five different amounts, from five different companies) and even after financial aid, I would owe $7000 for the semester. So I probably can't go back. And that means I just wasted four years of my life getting credits towards a degree I'm not going to earn, only getting debt in return. That's not right. Why is education so expensive? And, understanding that more and more of the population is poor, why can't they still give loans to students who need them? But noooo, they refuse. It's a crazy viscious cycle too. Get in debt in order to make more money in order to stay out of debt. >.<

And too, minimum wage is not enough to live on. Which is wrong...that was, I thought, the whole point of having a minimum wage--it was the lowest that it was possible to live on. But it isn't. Most people I know who have to work for minimum wage have to also work a minimum of two jobs. That leaves zero time for anything else.

I hate the world. Or at least, America. I should have gone to school in Germany or something. I've heard that they give enough financial aid to cover what the student cannot.

As everyone keeps telling me, I could take a year off, earn some money and then go back. I hate that idea. Not only because its stupid, but because last time I was away from school that long, I went back and had a horrible year. Really horrible. My GPA dropped like 1. someodd points.

I have a week to figure this out, to find if there is some way that I may possibly get $7000 before October. It isn't really looking plausible though. Which comes back to I've wasted like four years of my life, and gone into debt for absolutely nothing.