Financial Aide

I am not naive. I know that the government is pretty much incapable of giving every single person the exact amount of attention that they need and/or deserve.

But when I filed for student aide this morning (FAFSA is a swear word in my house) I sat and thought about how unfair it was how little help I get from the governmnent to go to school.

And its not like I'm going to school for something "selfish" like business, art design or music.  I am going into a field where I will most likely be helping everyone else. I'm going to be a freaking librarian. I will be preserving documents which feasibly could be government documents.

And just because my father makes a certain amount of money I get absolutely no financial aide. Nada. Zip. Zero. I get a "congrats your father's got a college degree" and then a pat on the back and I get told to get a governmentally backed loan. Yippee.

My father is financial strained. He can't help me with school, because he's really busy trying to keep our house from being taken from us. And I'm not stupid. I get good grades and have a few scholarships to help out.

But since I'm too young to get a loan on my own, I have to have my uncle/father sign on my loans for me. So I don't qualify for aide, and I can't get loans by myself. I might get aide if I lived by myself, but I can't afford to live by myself and take as many credit hours as I want to take.

GAH.

I just want this country to realize that its not the little people you're ignoring. They're covered, trust me. I've seen them at the Community College not attending classes and taking up space for two weeks before dropping out to take the financial aide money to buy escalades and trick out their hondas.

The government is ignoring middle class people like me who are just stuck. We're stuck because we're not loud enough to be heard and not poor enough to be noticed.

It sucks.