Paying for college.

I just got a second job today. I'm going to be a take-out girl at a restaurant. It's basically like waitressing over the phone. I start on Friday. My minimum-wage, minimum-hours job at the Admissions office is just not going to cut it anymore. It's really nice not having to work all the time, but it's also really nice being able to afford things like rent for next year.

So for the second summer in a row, I will be working more than one job at about 50 hours a week. Goodbye, life.

My dad made an interesting point this weekend. He was talking about how college tuition has gone up a lot over the past 10-20 years, but starting salaries have not gone up that much. Plus, today, college graduates have to pay for a heck of a lot more than our parents did when they graduated. Internet, cell phones, gas...none of that stuff was an expense back in the 80s.

He's right. According to the College Board, the average cost of tuition and fees for an in-state, public 4-year college is $7,605 a year. Out of state tuition averages $11,990, and private universities and colleges run upwards of $27,293. In 1980, it cost $2,373 a year to go to a 4-year public university. Granted, there's inflation and all, but tuition inflation is higher than general inflation.

So basically we are paying more for college, we are paying more for living expenses, and we aren't making as much money if we can even find a job when we graduate.

We're pretty much screwed.

Hence, the second job. I'm going to go start learning the 30 page menu now...

Dead week?

First of all, happy early Easter everybody!

Second of all, Monday marks the beginning of dead week. Every college kid has to deal with dead week and I'm sure it's great for some people.

I am not one of those people.

I do not understand why it is called dead week. In theory, dead week is supposed to be dead. It's the week before finals week, so there isn't supposed to be any tests, homework, meetings, etc.

Notice I said "in theory." Here is my "dead week" schedule:

Monday: Honors Project, online test, job interview, meeting, another meeting, work on group research project
Tuesday: 20 minutes group research project presentation, work orientation
Wednesday: Another group project presentation, work

Thursday and Friday aren't too bad, but holy crap the beginning of the week. Especially Monday. This means I should really be working on stuff this weekend...buuuut...it's Easter and I'm heading home in about an hour or so, so I'm sure I won't get too much done. Home is kind of a zero-productivity zone for me.

Actually, at this point in the semester, everywhere is a zero-productivity zone for me. I have lost the will to continue...ok that's a little over-dramatic. I'm just ready for summer! Less than 2 weeks left!

College Experience.

So this past weekend, I did Husker Hunt, a 24-hour scavenger hunt. I suppose you could call it fun. Definitely interesting and definitely epic. We had a list of about 200 things to find (100 right shoes counted as 1 item), another 100 or so things to take pictures of (you and someone with dreadlocks), and random challenges that included a dance-off, math quizzes at 8 am, and finding a stuffed dog hidden randomly around campus. We also went to the Red-White game wearing all green...

I was awake for about 38 hours straight...NEVER AGAIN.

I will say that I have probably never felt more terrible in my entire life, and I cannot believe I survived. Probably because we were running around literally the entire time, so we didn't really have time to sleep. Or eat. Or anything really. I think if I would have stopped moving long enough, I literally would have passed out. It was also freezing!

But college is about life experiences, right? I mean it was a lot of fun. I had an awesome team and honestly, how many people can say they've done something like that? Not very many.

Team Rapscallions!

Before the Hunt.
We are pumped.

After the Hunt.
We are dead.

We didn't win or anything, but sleep deprivation aside, it was a pretty fun weekend.

Spring.

Today it hit about 90 degrees, and it was absolutely wonderful.

After volunteering at an Easter Egg Hunt this morning and apartment-hunting this afternoon, I went and got frozen yogurt and then laid outside and did nothing/took a nap for about two hours. I brought a book with the intention of being productive, but ehh.

This is the part of the semester when productivity becomes near impossible because all you want to go do is sit outside. Nebraska is kind of known for having crappy weather, but it has its fair share of absolutely gorgeous days. I spose I should also mention that it's incredibly humid and we're in a tornado watch until 1 am, but I'll take what I can get. It's nice and warm outside.

This is also the part of the semester when everybody and their mother are trying to find apartments. It's a bit crazy. My future roomies and I don't have a place picked out yet, but we are on a waiting list and have a few more places to look at. I won't be homeless! (That's always good...)

This is also the part of the semester when everyone starts hating college. Ok I love college, but I am SO ready for summer. 3 weeks left! EEK!

STRESS!

So today in one of my classes we learned about stress.

Ok what college kid isn't stressed?

We did this evaluation to find out how stressed we are, and now that I have a number value for how stressed I actually am, I think I'm more stressed out about it. Hence, putting off some more homework to update this.

And on a related note about procrastinating....

I have been morally opposed to Twitter since I heard about it. It's stupid and pointless and no one is that important enough to "tweet" every single thing because no one cares. So guess what I just got? Yep, a Twitter account. I'm hooked.

Buh-bye, productivity!

Oh p.s.-You can follow me! @canderson310