Higher education is expensive and it is a brutal system for people like me. I’m a first generation college student, from a working class family with minimal financial resources and therefore had to put myself through college. My education always played second fiddle to my financial instability. Thus, I wasn’t able to give my academic career the attention it deserved. I had to work full time and establish a credit history while paying for community college. To receive guaranteed housing and a chance to travel the country, I took a volunteer job with the men’s basketball team. Everything was going good until the summer of 2008. Unfortunately, the 2008 financial crisis had unshakable effects for me. So, the loans I applied for were reduced and
