My parents can provide $10,000 for college, but college costs $30,000.

It’s simple math.

I can’t go where I want to go to college. I go back, and add everything up again, and then subtract, but I still find that I don’t have the necessary funds. I beat myself up. If only I had excelled enough in high school to get a scholarship that’d put a dent in this huge wall between me and my ideal college.

I took my fist out of my mouth, and enrolled in a state school, for about six grand a year. It’s a compromise that I’m still sour about, but I’m learning to accept. Too many young people aren’t going to college for me to whine about my own—fortunate despite disappointing—situation. Now that I’ve signed the papers binding myself with this state college, I prepare for a tough journey ahead. In order to have a chance at transferring to the college that I would prefer, I’m going to have to save money. That means that I’m going to have to get a job that doesn’t require extensive skills, yet pays well. I’m apprehensive because before the recession I didn’t know what I could offer to the work force, and now, I’m even more doubtful. Like so many other young students I know, I’ve yet to decide what I want to do for a living, and I’m hesitant to choose, for fear of picking something that isn’t marketable.

My high school graduation is arriving quickly. In the hot gymnasium, while I’m cramped next to my graduating class, there’s going to be a time where I’m called to exit my row, and walk into the real world. I’ll be walking slowly and carefully across the stage, but I won’t be worried about tripping and looking foolish in front of all of the hot high school girls, about to become hot college girls. Instead, I’ll be sweating about college, gas money, bills, books, and car repairs.

Shamefully, I try to ignore the economy whenever it starts freaking me out, but I know I can’t do this for long. I know that reality is going to set it very soon, leaving me no time to sulk about my college situation. There’s only time to do the best that I can, to achieve what I want to. My economics teacher had a good word for this. She would always get on her toes and point to a word on the top corner of the white board: RESPONSIBILTY. Each individual in the country has to take responsibility for his or her own situation. This recession is the child of our lack of personal responsibility, and the only thing that will end it is young people getting in the job market, being a contributor to the fluidity of the economy, getting any education they can, and preparing a roof to put over the head of the next generation.

There’s a lot to think about, and a lot that I don’t want to think about. But amidst this, I like to think about how fortunate I really am to have parents that can pay $10,000. I’m happy to have a good foundation, which is something many don’t have.
—Sebastian Lumpkins