I came into this amazing land of opportunity not knowing the amount of obstacles I’d  overcome.
As an international student with no assistance except from God and my family, school was rough.
Every semester, I’d stare at the amount of money I had to pay each semester and I’d just cry.
I didn’t know where the money would come from.
I come from a well to do family but I had other siblings in school as well.
Life was rough.
Somehow, God would provide a way that I was able to pay the first installment for my payment plan for the semester.
After I overcame that hurdle then I stare at the amount I had to spend to buy books.
My parents only worried about the school fees, somehow I was always responsible for my own books.

I’d search my school library first to see if they had the books I needed before I bought them in my college’s bookstore.
I remember finding some books but they were always several editions behind the books required for my classes.
You get the point; I didn’t buy books except I really needed them.

Sometimes, I would befriend people in class just so I could share their book. .
Sometimes, I would wait till I got to the class to listen to the professor before getting the txt book. If a professor was one of those who emphasized on reading the book, then most likely I would buy the book.
I remember going through my microbiology class without a textbook. Most of my science classes, I made sure I had a book because it’s science.

What am I trying to say?

When I graduated high school, I qualified for lots of scholarships and grants but just because I was international, I couldn’t take advantage of any of those grants and scholarships.
Financially, it would have been easier on me if I was an American student.

Most of my American friends don’t know how much I struggled in college to get my degree.
It’s puzzling to see  some American students choose partying over studying.
I couldn’t understand how someone could come to college with lots of scholarship and lose it in the first semester.
I am here struggling to find money to go to school and someone else is there wasting the money given to them for free.

If I was to get student loans, the interest rate alone would have killed me.

Americans schools are built to provide for their own, as it should. It does things to me when American students don’t understand what they have.

I couldn’t file for fafsa, plus I paid out of state. You guys have no excuse.

When I hear an American student complain of not having any money for school, I give them deaf ears because they have lots of assistance left, right and center..