Opinion | Drowning in Bills, Giving Up Dreams

“When I grow up,” said a naive, 10-year-old boy to his English class, “I’m going to go to college. I’m going to become the biggest writer of all time. I’m going to be the richest man alive.”

He has great dreams, great expectations, and great hope for the future. There are no obstacles, no surprises and no disappointments. The future is absolutely absolute.

Fast forward six years. The naïve boy has turned into a narcissistic teenager. English teachers told him he wasn’t a good writer, he’s not a good fit for college and he won’t be the richest man alive. His dreams shattered with every passing year of high school, and he worried constantly about whether he’d be able to pay his way through college.

Three years later, after saving up a sizeable amount of money from working part-time, a defeatist college sophomore watched his hope finally fade away as his bank account dwindled lower and lower with each passing month. Groceries, necessities, rent and most of all, tuition collectively chipped away at his aspirations. He watched sadly as all of his hard earned money slipped away. He picked up more hours, eventually going full-time, and watched sadly as his grades slipped away.

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee tuition is about $10,000 per year for a full-time student. That doesn’t include costs of living, rent, and all of the other stuff that comes with living alone. Working full-time helps relieve these costs, but to the detriment to one’s GPA.

College tuition needs to change.

It’s gotten to the point that students are worrying more about how they’re going to pay for college rather than focusing on their studies and achieving their plans for the future. They go to their jobs instead of studying for exams, instead of taking that internship, instead of taking the time to properly write that final paper. If they’re anything like the boy in this story, they likely contemplate if all of this is even worth it.

Is it even worth it?

Is it worth it to graduate from college, get a decent job, and achieve the American dream, all the while having countless debts and loans to pay off? Is this quality living? Is this what children nowadays have to look forward to?

That once-naïve little boy, with big dreams for his future, is me.

And I’ve just about given up.