Random!!

Got all my homework done today! Awesome!.....

No fainting and some kids said stuff about Friday and were being nosy but it wasnt too bad. My friends were really great today and my teacher gave me a hug as soon as I walked into the classroom. Embarrassing but nice .....

I still havent made the facebook page....

Maybe tommorow....

That's it guys, GoodNite!

Today went by uneventfully....

Sorta... Haha!

say goodnight, gracie...

good night gracie!

Eighteen year olds have every legal right to be independent...and poor. Most of them don't want to be poor, though. They still want their parents to subsidize their nice lifestyle, pay for college, etc. The problem is, nobody's going to spend their money to support someone who doesn't respect their wishes.

Parents have NO obligation to help you out financially once you're 18, so you'd better plan to be VERY nice to us....I mean, them!

Unfortunately, there will ALWAYS be someone around who can tell you what to do. Adults have bosses, police, the IRS...it's a long list. We'd love it if we could do exactly as we please, but we can't, either. <shrugs> That's life.

Eva, you're so right, but they (teens) don't understand yet. Life is still very easy in their mind. Jane has in her mind that at 18 she'll be renting an apartment downtown with her friend while going to college. When I asked her who should finance all of it, she replied that she'll work for a few hours in the afternoon while going to school in the morning.

So, I did the math for her and she didn't like it, of course
Even a tiny studio would cost her $ 1500 a month here, and her wages after
taxes would run around $ 500/month. I didn't have to go into expenses for
food, clothes, car etc. because she stomped off on me.....hehe.

She'd be better off in Tulsa, CJ. Average rental for a 2 bdrm apartment here is only $600/mo., so that's just $300 if she has a roommate. Of course, that would only leave $200 for food, phone, gasoline, clothes, internet access, cable TV...etc. Oh wait, I almost forgot about electricity and water. Oops.

Oh gosh. You guys are ruining this for me....

ha! that's my favourite Cosby episode - Theo's economics lesson

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFY0HBkUm8o

prices have changed a lot since 1984, but the principle stands

I think the idea is to do the opposite -- to help you appreciate the here and now. There are a lot of good things about being older, too, but it's easy to romanticize it and then skid right by the good things about being 13.

I loved going off to college at 18 and being independent. My parents did contribute to my college education but it was limited (less than required to claim me as a dependent on taxes, for example, even though my dad did anyway). I was very, VERY financially strapped, and that was with financial aid and scholarships. Later I worked, too, while going to school.

But I lived very (VERY) cheaply and managed it. (Like, $225/ month for room and board cheaply .... which included roaches and annoying housemates, and lots of tofu and ramen.) There are things I miss about that time and things I'm very happy to be past.

Haha! I think the son was right at the end though. I LoL'ed when Bill Cosby was like "No wonder you get D's on everything!" and when he was like "your afraid your brains gonna ooze out of your head!"

That's a really funny video!

Yeah, I know.

Roaches and tofu? Ewwwwww!!!

Like Soz, I loved going off to college at 18, too. And I had to be VERY careful about money.

My parents agreed to pay for tuition, room & board, books and fees. That's all. (They had three children.) Everything else was up to me. I worked summers and Christmas breaks to raise enough money for clothes, gasoline, personal items, medical expenses, and the occasional pizza.

Then I got married after my second year of college and I REALLY had to cut back! We were on our own -- no more money from Mom & Dad! I applied for and got financial aid plus a part-time job on campus during the school year in addition to my summer job. Plus taking a full-time class schedule of upper level courses. The good thing about being young is that you have enough energy to manage a ridiculous schedule.

Those were tough years, but fun ones. We sat on the floor in friends' apartments because nobody had enough furniture. People played guitars, and we played "Spades" (a card game) all night long on weekends. We ate cheap food that we learned to make ourselves because we couldn't afford to go out more than once a week. We walked or rode bikes a lot to save gas money. But everybody we knew in college did these things too, so it was all fun. I still have some friends from those days.

Don't skip college, Gracie. Besides the fact that it will enable you to get much better jobs, it's really a great way to begin learning how to make it on your own.

How could anyone working that far above her age level even consider not going to college.

OMG, that clip was priceless
I bookmarked it and will show it to Miss Jane when needed.

I lived at home so I could go to the local good university, luck in living near, but the living at home part was difficult, depressing. Not that I was such a delight to my struggling parents either. These were my parents' years of decline in many ways and the house was rarely a happy one.

There was no tuition back then, or I couldn't have done school at all (long story). My father was off and on unemployed, mostly not. My mother later on worked as a clerk at the university. I worked thirty to thirty six hours a week at a hospital and a doctor's office, plus time back and forth on the bus, for the five years it took me to get through, in order to pay for books, the bus (no car), 80% of my food, virtually all my clothes and sometimes contribute to the mortgage. I don't remember ever going to the doctor except for my initial physical before starting school, and once when I was throwing up all over creation, going to student health (cramps, here's a pill). Even threw up in the telephone booth at student health. The poor next person to the phone booth.

There were good times, and I still have some friends from those days. I was exposed to whole new worlds and don't regret a minute. I fell in love in my last two years and woke up to wonder (in a good way).

Things got better after that, though not for my parents. I eventually grew up (oh, say twenty years later).


Gotta add - these were years some a2kers were over fighting in south asia, so take the difficulty I describe with a grain of salt.

But Eva, I thought scholarships paid for everything. And why didnt you just live in a dorm? Then you wouldn't have to pay for an apartment. You would've had more money and wouldn't of had to work soo hard, right?

Yeah, I'm going to college for sure. (I'm not that excited about it anymore though. Thanks guys! LOL) Why work soo hard in High school if Im not going to college? But anyway, I don't know how college is gonna work for me though. I'll be still a 'minor' and my dads definitely NOT gonna let me move out on my own or anything. But I want to soo bad! I was thinking about going to the same college as my older brother Matt. When I'm 15 he'll be 18 and we'll both be in college so I could totally move in with him as long as we go to the same college. I think my dads gonna be a jerk about it though and make me stay home. I don't know. I guess I still got alot of stuff to figure out, huh?

It may be different in the U.S., but in Canada dorm housing costs more than off-campus housing. Eva would have had less money, and would have had to work harder to live on-campus.

just checked - on-campus housing at U of T can go up to $2600/month for a single room in the off-season

http://www.fields.utoronto.ca/resources/housing/uoft_summer.html#offcampus

Well at California State University you have to live in a dorm if your a first time freshmen or under 22. And it says 'Double +10 meal plan- $10,050'
Your right, that's a ton of money. Scholarships don't pay for dorms?

http://www.csulb.edu/divisions/students/housing/campus_housing/fees.htm