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What Goes Through Your Mind When You Graduate From College
March 15, 2015
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I ripped open the envelope that contained my college diploma this week, and I was surprised at what I felt when I held it in my hand. I felt old, obviously. And I felt so proud of myself, and I know everyone goes to college these days; however, I still couldn’t stop the smile that formed.
And then I spent the remainder of the night thinking about my freshman year and how I never thought I would survive.
I was thrilled when I got accepted into the University of Mississippi. I thought it would be different than high school, because in high school I felt like I was invisible. I was the reader. I was the teacher’s pet. I was every bad connotation for ‘good girl’. I loved Harry Potter and love stories and making good grades. But I always wanted to be invited to hang out with the ‘popular’ kids. I would pretend I didn’t care, but I wanted so badly to be cool and fun and to hang out with cute boys. I wanted to be noticed.
August 2010. I packed up my car and drove to Oxford, MS with my mom and a friend, and when I got there I was petrified. I had no idea how college worked. There was no manual for this; it was nothing like the movies. I had to share a bathroom with thirty other girls. I couldn’t do it. I thought I couldn’t do it. My bed was just so high off the ground.
My mom and I went to dinner the first night, and when our waiter asked what I wanted to drink I just fell apart. I told him my bed was too high, and he crouched down, told me not to cry, and explained how to lower it.
My mom said I could come home; she said I could wait to go to school. I didn’t have to leave her and my dad yet. However, I’ve always been so stubborn. I don’t quit unless it’s the last option, so I stayed. I cried all the time, and I drove six hours home every weekend. I had to shower with thirty other girls, with flip-flops on. It took everything I had left to make friends of my own.
And I did end up becoming ‘popular’. I was the ‘girl-who-didn’t-drink-but-hung-out-at-parties’. I was the DD. I was the girl who picked people up at 4:00 a.m. I was the ‘she’s-pretty-but-won’t-do-more-than-kiss’ girl.
I got what I never had in high school; I got invited. And I found the real friends too late. I sacrificed the real friends for the ‘cool’ friends. It took everything I had to not quit when I had to live on a couch for six months. It took everything I had to get dressed and face my ex-boyfriend around campus. To face my ex-friends who couldn’t even look me in the eye when they saw me. To remind myself that my ex broke up with me because of my mom and dad’s financial issues. To figure out that I only dated him because I was so, so lonely. Because my friends sucked. Because they broke up with me because of money issues. To go to Young Life and not talk, because I didn’t want anyone to know about me not being able to pay for my apartment. To not cry every time Teri hugged me after we prayed. To not tell my new friends my secrets. To not cry when they didn’t care about my past and loved me anyway, and to not cry when they took my side and told me they would never let anything bad happen to me again.
And I tell people the chain of events in my life is the best chain of events, because had I had a car my junior year then I would have been able to tutor and pay for my apartment. And I would have continued hating my friends for being snotty. I wouldn’t have been brave enough to move away from them on my own. I would have never gone to Young Life. I would have never met Teri or Alison or Caitlin or Shelby. I would have never met Taylor. I would have never known how loved I am. I would have kept hanging around materialistic people. If my mom and dad hadn’t gone through financial issues at the time, they wouldn’t have moved to Virginia. I wouldn’t have met John. No one would have ever called me ‘Bertie’.
And life is so hard. It’s even harder when you’re trying to be someone you’re not. Life is so much better when you just realize that you love writing love stories and when you realize that you love having friends to watch bad movies with more than you like picking up drunk friends and when you find a boy who will wait for marriage instead of trying to force you to do things you don’t want to do.
And all the things I never thought I would get through are in the past. They are written down in a journal to remind me that I can get through the days that suck. It’s amazing what we can do when we wake up each day and go to sleep each night. And the days kept going; the world didn’t pause for me nor should it have. And thank God, because I wouldn’t love such a wonderful group of girls in Oxford, MS today if it had. I wouldn’t be able to handle bad news or get over lost friendships. I wouldn’t be as happy as I am today, and that’s worth all the bad.
“I promise I shall never give up, and that I’ll die yelling and laughing.”
Jack Kerouc
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alexandria_Gryder
Student entrepreneurs lower textbook rental costs
June 29, 2014
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Two students at the University of Pretoria have found inspiration in having to work with a tight budget. They’ve turned their lack of funds into a business opportunity to help other students, while also putting money back in their pockets.
Thabiso Lekala, the co-founder of eAfford, shared a predicament with many other students. Books are the lifeblood of his university life, but they are a major expenditure, and the campus library doesn’t always have enough copies of a textbook in demand.
He and his friend, Seyi Ogunbowale, decided to turn this to their advantage, by creating a business that rents out academic books online for less than half the retail cost.
Lekala says’ “You’d go to the library and you’d find that the textbooks you were looking to find to study is not there, or someone has borrowed it …I couldn’t afford textbooks, I couldn’t afford to go out, I couldn’t afford like groceries and stuff so I had to compromise on some of those stuff so it actually pushed me to say if I could do this I can help a lot of other people in the same situation.”
The service currently has more than a hundred users, with over 10 000 books on offer.
The duo started with a cash injection of six-thousand-rand, and have now done a deal with publishers, whereby they are hoping to expand their online library to other campuses around the country.
Source: http://www.enca.com/student-entrepreneurs-cut-textbook-costs
Textbook Rentals Increase at University Arkansas
January 26, 2014
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Textbook purchases from the University Bookstore have increased over the past few years, but so has the means to acquire textbooks, the UA Bookstore director said.
“We have seen a growth in the textbook market and textbook purchases as we are looking at the UofA bookstore,” Ali Sadeghi said. “That has come on the understanding that the enrollment has increased and the kind of material that professors have been using has changed.”
Students have the option to buy new and used books, and also rent textbooks, which is generally the cheapest means of acquiring books.
The bookstore has seen a 30 percent growth rate in students who rent textbooks.
“The variety of material available and the ways students can obtain the books has mushroomed,” Sadeghi said.
Sadeghi also said that while officials has seen an increase in students getting their books from the bookstore, they also have to analyze and understand all of the factors.
“When we normalize the data, we also see the phenomenon of online purchasing,” Sadeghi said.
Students are able to pick up textbooks that they reserve or pre-order at the second floor of the bookstore.
“We also have a site within our website that provides competitive shopping for our students,” Sadeghi said.
Certain majors, such as engineering, involve purchasing textbooks that may be more expensive than usual. Textbooks more than $200 is common for engineering majors, student said.
“One time I had to buy a statics and dynamics combo book that was a little over $200, and that one I had to get from the bookstore because it was a bookstore-only book,” senior Caleb Bryant said. “However, it came in use for two different classes and sold back for a good amount. Most engineering books are expensive anyway, so it comes with the major.”
While online books may be cheaper, they are not always a better price, and take time to be delivered.
“At times, it is not that much cheaper,” Bryant said. “The bookstore offers convenience, and you are able to get it that day usually. The Internet offers it cheaper, and if the professor allows earlier versions, it is much cheaper, but then you have to wait for it to come in.”
Physical vs. digital: a textbook debate
November 14, 2013
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They’re big and bulky, heavy and awkward, and overly priced, but textbooks are essential for most college courses.
Why do students spend hundreds of dollars a semester buying books, though? There has to be some alternative to carrying around several books in a backpack day after day.
At the Missouri State bookstore, a textbook for MTH 135, a general college algebra class, is priced at $101.50 for a used copy.
Why?
When buying traditional textbooks — either online or at a bookstore — the price is going to be high.
Not only are you paying for the book itself, but according to figures from the National Association of College Stores, textbook prices also include payments for the bookstore, shipping and handling, the publisher or publishing company, marketing for the textbook, the author, paper and printing, and then the publisher’s employees.
“I spent over $700 last semester buying my books through the bookstore,” said Alexandra Reed, a senior psychology student at Missouri State.
So when students purchase textbooks from bookstores, they need to realize that they aren’t just buying a book; they are paying these high prices to pay for every aspect that went into creating that book, which can be problematic for some college students.
“Even with used books, the pricing is crazy. It makes paying for college on my own that much more difficult,” said Reed.
A newer alternative to traditional textbooks is the use of digital textbooks or e-books. Students can easily download and access these books using tablets, Kindles and laptops and pay much less for the same exact book found in the bookstore.
Digital textbooks can be found online at dozens of sites. CourseSmart.com, as well as Amazon.com, has thousands of e-books at reasonable prices.
Michael Borich, a media professor at MSU, believes that digital textbooks are going to be the future for college students.
“Textbooks are still part of a last century oligarchy that enrich publishers at the expense of students — it’s a huge rip off that’s about to change,” said Borich.
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