From time to time my head begins to race when I consider the debt I'm going to be in after school. I literally could have paid for a small house with money I've spent on getting this simple baccalaureate degree. It makes me sick to consider that it may well be two decades before I get all of my schooling entirely paid off. I can't even begin to recognize what that actually means for my life. It frightens me to no end and I simply cannot find a way to avoid it or ignore it. Saving a miracle or a shocking inheritance, this is going to be a long LONG haul to any sort of financial independence.

Or it will take extreme patience. It will take living in cheap housing for long periods of time, buying food locally, not upgrading any of my technology, riding a bike, pinching pennies by reading books instead of watching television, cooking my own food and never eating at restaurants, going for walks and bike rides instead of road trips, dumpster diving for bread instead of buying it, building a book case instead of buying one, and simply going without for as long as possible. Dollar by dollar, dime by dime, this can be cared for. It means living a life opposite of what my culture says I ought to be doing, which is buying new stuff.

I am terrified of debt and simultaneously motivated to allow it to influence me to be less of a consumer and more of a reuser. Does that help my worry? Not at all. It does help that I don't much care about having a huge house and lots of kids and a big screen TV? Does it help that I don't care if I own a car ever? I think so. What are the things that put other people in debt? A house. A car. And school. I have merely thrown my lot in with the thing that seems a lot more important to me.

Let us hope that is enough.