Cashing In Your College Coupons

Growing up I needed something that represented a middle ground. A middle ground that contains the fantasies of supermarket aisles and gas station wonders without the archetypes of higher/lower education and vernacular. Basically, a middle ground that contained stories easily accessible for those who live day to day lives that claim an existence undetermined on whether it may or may not have a deeper meaning. A life that holds value based on how well you got out of a parking ticket or how much money you saved on your Burger King value meal. A life in which true value is found in the joy of coupons, sales, Amazon free trials, and most of all, sharing that Burger King meal with the family you helped raise. Growing up I did not get a head start in school. My parents weren’t college educated and many of my homework questions were answered with a roll of the eyes, a large sigh, and “look it up.” That was okay, that just meant I had to work twice as hard to understand my assignments. Although, the largest gap I saw in my educational literacy was college. I had no idea how that worked. I went into any college that accepted me after my senior year, unaware of how bending and twisting the college system could be. Growing up I was unknown to college financial literacy. I watched my mom pay for mountains of groceries with clipped 2-for-1 coupons. She was the master, even CVS cashiers were jealous the way she wielded three foot long receipts of coupons. Although coupons don’t translate to Loans A and B. I couldn’t go up to CVS cashiers to cash in the mountains of student debt I then incurred from my lack of financial literacy within the college system. Growing up, college was a brand. It was a title, a name tag that they pinned to your shirt when your parents showed you off to their friends. It was a dream of theirs to have their child receive a bachelors. You couldn’t possibly let them down, and you won’t. So grab your cherry icees, Amazon free trials, and CVS receipts, because everything’s going