If you are a recent college graduate like me, have you taken a look at your student loans? Or have you pretended to be blissfully unaware of the debt that is now looming over you? I've been somewhat proactive about looking at my future debt, but haven't done much else with it. I regret not paying on the interest when I'd get those tiny $100 bills offering me the option to pay the interest that had accrued during the previous year of school. Now my interest is well over $1,000 and I wondered what it would be like otherwise? My debt is looming over me, guaranteeing to be close to $90,000 after I get my masters, and at this point, what am I supposed to do about it? It's funny because when I was in undergraduate, I paid at least $5,000 out-of-pocket each year for tuition in addition to the stafford loans. This upcoming year, tuition is cheaper than it was at my undergraduate, so loans cover the entire sum of the tuition. That doesn't make me feel much better. I'm sitting here, going to be basically taking a pay cut in half of what I made on my taxes last year, and supposed to get by as an adult, with more expenses than ever before. I have to pay for rent, internet, gas, electricity, and anything extra I might need, like textbooks or groceries. Now I admit, I am very lucky. I don't pay my own phone bill, car insurance, medical insurance, or really any of that stuff, but life is still very tight for me. This semester I am getting a refund from my student loans because I wasn't sure how much tuition was going to be for me due to some very large discrepancies on the school's website. With this refund, I'd love to put a cushion between me and homelessness, but I am plagued with the very real issue of wanting to get a head start on my loans. I'd love to push that debt down $10,000, and start paying on the parent plus loan that has the highest interest,although I think with some changes that were made to the student loan policies, one of the Stafford loans has the highest interest rate. In any case, I'm just conflicted. Use the money to pay off student loans, or use the money to live. I think I'm going to try to be smart and start paying on those loans. I think in the long run it will help me out, and if I'm really lucky, I can get an assistantship in the upcoming semester and I'll have to pay very little for school, and take all the extra loan money that I've already accepted, and just use that to pay off the highest interest loan and make out even better than I would have been before!
Here's to hoping my debt doesn't consume me!!
Tell me about your college debt story? Are you in repayment yet? Has that been difficult to handle? Did you make it out of college without debt? I'd love to hear from you!!!
Thanks for reading.
~Amanda
Monday, August 26, 2013
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Changes.
Thinking about this summer has left me wishing that it would never end. I know I have to go back to the real world, but I'm honestly scared shitless. The past three nights I've laid awake, listening to Scott snoring thinking about the next 2 years of my life. Graduate school, something that I can't say I've always wanted, but something I've been wanting ever since I realized what I wanted to do. I'm a little bummed that I'm not venturing into a PhD program, just to stick it out for the next 5-7 years, but I'm also nervous and worried about all the 'what ifs'. I have all these questions about master's theses, being the best student that I can be, teaching next semester, where the parking structure is, what textbooks do I need, do I have a real chance of continuing and going on to the PhD program, can I have a life outside of this program, can I get married during this program, can I start a family in this program, do I have what it takes? I mean I just don't know what I'm getting into, and I hope I have what it takes. All of this has me overwhelmed and thinking about my personal statement, something that I hated because it was so limiting, all of these rules about what you should and shouldn't say, that always had me questioning, "Isn't this about me? Shouldn't this be an honest depiction of what I want and why graduate school is a part of that?" So last night, in my sleep, I wrote a new personal statement, one that I wanted to write here for all to read, to know what's really inside of my heart and head... Here goes nothing...
Thinking about writing a personal statement, I had a list of no-nos inside of my head. Don't say you want to practice, don't say you want to help people, make it interesting, but don't give too much away, this all makes me want to call a big BS on the entire thing. If you, Mr or Mrs. admissions advisor at clinical psychology program, want a script, I could give you that, but I won't. Why? Because I like to think I am an individual, and all these no-nos are exactly what I wish to write about, so maybe I'm a rebel, or I'm just asking to be rejected, but I think that I'm honest. Graduate school is scary, I'm afraid of it and if I could avoid the entire thing, I just might, but I need it for my future. Sure I could work somewhere and have a different life, but I wouldn't be truly happy with it because I have goals and dreams for my future that are in reach, not like those dreams of being a pop star or famous athlete, these ones are really here and I am able to achieve them. My dream is to be a psychologist and not only that, but to eventually have a private practice. You see, when I was in college, I went through some turmoil wondering what I wanted to do with my life. I started college as a musical theater major thinking life would be a ball if I could perform on the stage and be famous and rich, but then the real world set in along with a sense of purpose and I decided to try something else. I was set on being a lawyer and thought that a psychology major would fit that well because I could really get into the head of others, then I realized I wasn't cut out for Torts. Next, I thought, 'Hmmm, well I like psychology, why not psychiatry', with some research, I quickly shut that one down, I have other life goals beside spending the next 12 years in school. Finally, I researched what I could do with a psychology degree, and it turns out, basically all roads lead to more education. I decided to do some extracurriculars, tried working with underprivaledged kids, realized I didn't enjoy it, but I did find my niche in trauma patients in the form of rape victims, and then working on a suicide hotline, I got a taste for the helping people part. The phone is so limiting and I want to be someone to help others help themselves. I want to provide therapy to those people who really need it and to make them realize that they are worth my time. I think my biggest goal, something that won't happen right out of graduate school is to have a thriving private practice. Not only that, but to have a weekly pro-bono day of treatment. This is because I've talked to those people who really need help, and can't get it because they are limited by finances, and they have no where to turn. I want to be that person that helps the single mother of 3, who could never go to therapy because she has chooses feeding her children every day over helping herself, or the man who's been rejected by the VA because they won't recognize his PTSD. I want to help those people. Sure, I could easily go work for some non-for-profit, but I've seen the jaded therapists there because they've been underappreciated, and I don't want that for me. Now I know, I should have told you about how much I love research and how that is where my future lies, but it isn't, and it wouldn't be true. I do enjoy research, a good data set can make me salivate, and it is a extraordinary feeling to have significant results or to have a horde of people surrounding you presentation at a conference, but it is not my passion. I enjoy it, I'm good at it and I know it will be a part of my graduate experience, but not when I get into the workforce. I'm not going to lie to you, or write about something that isn't true, but if you get to know me, you'll see that passion I have shine through. I like to think and hope that this personal statement goes to the top of the list because its unique, honest, and brave. Maybe it will and maybe it won't, but at the very least, I've told my story. Not the cookie-cutter story I've been told to write. Mine.
There you have it.
Thanks for reading.
~Amanda
Thinking about writing a personal statement, I had a list of no-nos inside of my head. Don't say you want to practice, don't say you want to help people, make it interesting, but don't give too much away, this all makes me want to call a big BS on the entire thing. If you, Mr or Mrs. admissions advisor at clinical psychology program, want a script, I could give you that, but I won't. Why? Because I like to think I am an individual, and all these no-nos are exactly what I wish to write about, so maybe I'm a rebel, or I'm just asking to be rejected, but I think that I'm honest. Graduate school is scary, I'm afraid of it and if I could avoid the entire thing, I just might, but I need it for my future. Sure I could work somewhere and have a different life, but I wouldn't be truly happy with it because I have goals and dreams for my future that are in reach, not like those dreams of being a pop star or famous athlete, these ones are really here and I am able to achieve them. My dream is to be a psychologist and not only that, but to eventually have a private practice. You see, when I was in college, I went through some turmoil wondering what I wanted to do with my life. I started college as a musical theater major thinking life would be a ball if I could perform on the stage and be famous and rich, but then the real world set in along with a sense of purpose and I decided to try something else. I was set on being a lawyer and thought that a psychology major would fit that well because I could really get into the head of others, then I realized I wasn't cut out for Torts. Next, I thought, 'Hmmm, well I like psychology, why not psychiatry', with some research, I quickly shut that one down, I have other life goals beside spending the next 12 years in school. Finally, I researched what I could do with a psychology degree, and it turns out, basically all roads lead to more education. I decided to do some extracurriculars, tried working with underprivaledged kids, realized I didn't enjoy it, but I did find my niche in trauma patients in the form of rape victims, and then working on a suicide hotline, I got a taste for the helping people part. The phone is so limiting and I want to be someone to help others help themselves. I want to provide therapy to those people who really need it and to make them realize that they are worth my time. I think my biggest goal, something that won't happen right out of graduate school is to have a thriving private practice. Not only that, but to have a weekly pro-bono day of treatment. This is because I've talked to those people who really need help, and can't get it because they are limited by finances, and they have no where to turn. I want to be that person that helps the single mother of 3, who could never go to therapy because she has chooses feeding her children every day over helping herself, or the man who's been rejected by the VA because they won't recognize his PTSD. I want to help those people. Sure, I could easily go work for some non-for-profit, but I've seen the jaded therapists there because they've been underappreciated, and I don't want that for me. Now I know, I should have told you about how much I love research and how that is where my future lies, but it isn't, and it wouldn't be true. I do enjoy research, a good data set can make me salivate, and it is a extraordinary feeling to have significant results or to have a horde of people surrounding you presentation at a conference, but it is not my passion. I enjoy it, I'm good at it and I know it will be a part of my graduate experience, but not when I get into the workforce. I'm not going to lie to you, or write about something that isn't true, but if you get to know me, you'll see that passion I have shine through. I like to think and hope that this personal statement goes to the top of the list because its unique, honest, and brave. Maybe it will and maybe it won't, but at the very least, I've told my story. Not the cookie-cutter story I've been told to write. Mine.
There you have it.
Thanks for reading.
~Amanda
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
I'm back!
Hey Everyone!
So I've been thinking about this blog and what I could possibly write about right now. I'm not really doing anything... short of cooking dinner and watching One Tree Hill on Netflix, so what do I write about? And now, I finally have an idea!
FASHION!
It may not seem incredibly important to some, but this happens to be a real issue for me, as a twenty-two year old woman in transition. I am going from college to graduate school, where I have a teaching position. In college, I basically lived in yoga and sweatpants, as do most students when passing those exams are more important than waking up early to do your hair. But now, I want things to be different. I want to be taken seriously, especially because I could have students in my class that are the same age or even older than me. I want to command authority and professionalism, and I want to look good doing it.
Now the business suit is good, and I have 2 of them for job interviews and such, however, they seem a little overly formal to me, and I'd like to find a happy medium.
So I made a list when I went shopping with my mom for my birthday last weekend. And here it is...
- Dark jeans
- Navy Blazer
- Pencil Skirts
- Nude Pumps
- Black flat boots
- Brown Flat boots
- Flats
- Cardigans
- Scarves
- Nice tops
- A Cute top that goes well with jeans or dress pants
 |
| http://www.maurices.com/product/index.jsp?expcsl=1098695%7C%7C&productId=20255366 |
 |
| http://www.maurices.com/product/index.jsp?expcsl=1106975%7C%7C&productId=18971716 |
- A Great flowy skirt, something different than the typical pencil skirt
 |
| http://www.maurices.com/product/index.jsp?expcsl=1082313%7C%7C&productId=11222858 |
- A Cute Blazer (Not Navy, but slightly patterned, and less structured than a suit jacket)
 |
| http://www.lanebryant.com/catalog/search.cmd?form_state=searchForm&x=-1132&y=-53&keyword=ponte |
- JEANS!!!
 |
| http://www.ae.com/web/browse/product.jsp?productId=1437_8305_939&catId=cat20110 |
 |
| http://www.ae.com/web/browse/product.jsp?productId=1435_8147_903&catId=cat20112 |
- Cardigans
 |
| http://www.ae.com/web/search/index.jsp?Ntt=1340-6033 |
 |
| It wouldn't let me get a better picture of this! http://www.hm.com/us/product/08406?article=08406-E |
I'm still searching for some boots, and a few extra pieces, however, I have a ton of ideas from another blog that I found through pinterest. I'm giving you a link to the outfits page of my own pinterest!
Happy Pinning! http://pinterest.com/wcsinger13/cute-outfits/
Also, check out the other 2 blogs today because I've got some cool crafts, and some yummy food ideas for you!
~Amanda
Monday, August 5, 2013
It's been an even longer while!
I know it's been some time since I have posted on this blog and that's because I just got back from vacation with my family in Gatlinburg. I had a lot of fun, and I promise I'm going to get back into the swing of blogging. At this time, I'm going to be pretty busy for the next week with some visitors and a birthday! (Mine)
So anyway, I'll get back on next week, maybe with something more interesting!
Any Ideas?!
BTW - Keep a look out on my Craft blog, as August is Craft month! Now I don't have anything yet, but I will starting next week also.
Thanks for reading!
~Amanda
So anyway, I'll get back on next week, maybe with something more interesting!
Any Ideas?!
BTW - Keep a look out on my Craft blog, as August is Craft month! Now I don't have anything yet, but I will starting next week also.
Thanks for reading!
~Amanda
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