Playing Off My Student Loans

     Greetings from Seattle! I'm up in Washington for Thanksgiving break visiting my brother, Tyler. It's the first time I've seen him since getting back to the United States in May from my mission in Chile. It's also the first time I've gotten to meet his youngest daughter, and his older two are so big now! It's crazy.

     Tyler and I went into the city today so he could show me around. He took me to Pike Place, which was so cool! It reminded me of Chilean ferias, but it was honestly way better (sorry, Chile). I particularly enjoyed feeding the seagulls french fries outside of Ivar's. One of them landed on my head. I don't have a bird phobia, but it freaked me out. I loved it!

     It's Thanksgiving time, so I'll get right to the point (if you can believe that). One of my favorite attractions was a street performer outside of the original Starbucks (like, the first ever). He was playing the accordion and wearing a pigeon head, with a sign in front of him that said, "Playing off my student loans."

     My brother and I started talking about what a dumb place we've arrived at in this country. We strive to get into college so we can graduate and get a well-paying job, and in order to do that, we get ourselves into debt. Our degrees now make us average, so we get average jobs for average pay for an indefinite period of time with a constantly pending mountain of student loans. So now that we're sophisticated college graduates, what do we do? We dress up as fowls and stand on street corners so we can slowly crawl out from under our debt. Score one for the American Dream.

     There would be little point to this post if it were just a complaint about The Man and The System. There's not much we can do about that. What we can do is do our best to not get into this situation. There are several ways to get through college without incurring debt, and we can't criticize the government for overspending when we can't figure out our own pocketbooks. I'm not a financial expert, so I'm not a scholarly source by any means, but there's one solution that stands out to me: work hard.

     That refers to both academia and profession. Tyler, the same brother that took me to downtown Seattle, graduated from Utah Valley University in April. He also had a wife, three kids, and three jobs. He also finished college with absolutely no debt. He's an inspiration to me of how to sacrifice and provide without focusing on oneself. He often tells me that it was the worst time of his life, but it was worth it, and he won't be haunted by bills and loans for the next decade.

     Another way to work hard is to actually apply for grants and scholarships. When I attended MiraCosta Community College, the counselors told us repeatedly that thousands of scholarship dollars went unspent every year because not enough students applied for them. Ironically, even after they told us that, I did nothing. Colleges and Universities have so much money! What they don't have are people who will take the time to apply to their financial programs. Be one of those people.

     The last strategy is to actually qualify for scholarships in the first place. I don't want to suggest that nobody applies for scholarships. People do, and it can be competitive. So make sure that you stand out. That can come in many forms, but especially in your GPA and your extracurricular activities. If you're still in High School, do stuff outside of class. Play sports, join theater, and/or do anything your school offers as a way of getting ahead. It all contributes. As for grades, a friend of mine just told me, "A lot of people tell me, 'Don't worry so much. C's get degrees,' and I'm like, 'Yeah, but A's get scholarships.'" I totally agree with her. It might be a pain in the butt to study instead of hanging out or watching Netflix, but it's all a question of priorities. And honestly, I love study dates. It's the best of both worlds (though it can be a little difficult to concentrate). What you really have to ask yourself is how badly you want to not have any debt in five years.

     Unfortunately, college is expensive, and college students are poor. Even worse, there's not much we can do to change either of those (except protest that tax payers should pay even more so we can get free education because we feel entitled to their money. I don't advocate that). What we can do is take responsibility for our own actions and work, work, work. No excuses, no complaints, no protests. Just maturity, intelligence, and honest effort. Life is so much better when we stop blaming everyone around us and start holding ourselves accountable for our actions.

     Debt isn't the worst thing in the world, but I've seen in my own family that it's definitely not something you'd like to have if you can avoid it. Luckily, there are many ways to do just that if you're not afraid to work hard for it. Brainstorm and come up with some, or you may end up playing music on a street corner wearing a pigeon head.

Here's a short video excerpt (2:35) based on a talk called "Becoming Provident Providers Temporally and Spiritually." Enjoy!