Wednesday, September 23, 2009

College Students Should Be Poor!

I got so much feed back from my story about Brittany wanting a tattoo! One person emailed me, “Does Brittany know that tattoos are PERMANENT?” in very large font and then went on to suggest that pink and blue sharpies would work just as well!

Her aunt emailed to ask if Brittany knew she wouldn’t be able to give blood for a couple months. (and Brittany gives blood every chance she gets.)

A very sweet lady stopped me after church and said, “I’ve been meaning to ask you about your daughter? Have you checked her over? I hope she doesn’t get a tattoo!” I told her so far Brittany hadn’t been able to save enough money for one and she replied, “Then don’t give her any money!”

I’m probably safe. Brittany is not and never has been a saver. She has babysat since she was 11 years old and worked for Jersey Mikes Subs for two years in high school. She also has housesat, pet sat and plant sat! She has always made good money, but it goes out as fast as it comes in. Seriously, she made a lot of money over Christmas break and was broke within three days of returning to school!

Part of it, I can’t fault her. She is very generous and buys very nice gifts for people. She also has been known to call her dad on her way home and tell him not to have lunch; she’s bringing him one. She has brought me flowers, treated me to manicures and taken me out to many lunches all for no other reason then she thought of it and felt like it.

However she’s feeling the pinch in college. And she doesn’t like it much. We had told her we didn’t want her working her Freshman year and that we would put a certain amount of money into her bank account every week. This is supposed to happen every Friday. Usually about Wednesday the call comes, “Could you transfer the money a little early?”

The first time this happened she said she had no money to put gas in her car. But, she had bought an orchid for her dorm room!

We have a family phone plan and a couple months ago were stunned to see a charge for $49.00 worth of text messages! While we were still staring at the bill in wonder though and saying, “This is ridiculous! Why is she doing this?” John’s phone received a text message…. from Brittany…saying, “I “heart” you, dad.” And of course dad says, “We can’t take her text messaging away!” (We have since paid to put her on the unlimited plan!)

The thing is college kids don’t know how to be poor anymore! They have way too much stuff: refrigerators, microwaves, laptops, futons,

In our first house while living in Germany we made a bookshelf from concrete blocks and boards. I always remember when the German packers were packing up our stuff to move back to the states and seeing boxes labeled “rocks”. (Yes, your tax dollars moved my “rocks” across the ocean!)

But, where is the satisfaction that someday after eating Ramon noodles for years while going after that medical degree they realize that as a doctor you can buy a restaurant or two!

What will they have to look back at as a measure of how far they’ve come? Already they drive nicer cars then their parents!!

We’re doing our best to teach Brittany there is a lot of fun to be had as a poor starving college student.

At least it keeps her from that tattoo!


If you'd like to buy my book; 'In These Days of Cell Phones, Texting & Social Media ... Can the Nest Ever be Truly Empty?' visit: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I3RK534




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