Disillusionment

I have always prided myself on being someone who always sees the good in others and also expects them to do the right thing. I have also been a firm believer in our country's educational assistance and, to a lesser degree, our welfare programs. In theory, I feel that we ought to help provide for those who cannot provide for themselves.

However, now that I work at a community college, I see and hear things that cause me to question my previous beliefs in humanity and assistance programs. For example, I visited with a student who is a single mom and wanted me to help her set up her school schedule for the fall. She asked me if she could apply for a student loan. I told her that she already qualified for a Pell grant, and that it would cover her school expenses. She then told me that she wanted the loan to cover her living expenses. I asked her if she planned on working at all, to which she replied, "If I work part time, my government benefits will go way down. It's not worth it for me to work at all."

This situation angers me for a few different reasons: 1) This particular student was not performing well in most of her classes and will likely not graduate, 2) The government is paying her to fail college, and 3) The government is also paying her to not work.

So, while I am repaying thousands of dollars of student loan debt in addition to working for a state-funded institution, hundreds of other students are being paid to go to school. This in and of itself would not upset me, except many of these students are just taking classes so they can receive Pell grants and other forms of student aid. It seems just a little unfair.

Taking all of this into account, I still try to give students the benefit of the doubt. I am not in their shoes, and may not fully understand their situation. However, if the government really wants to stimulate the economy, forgive some student loan debt--especially for those of us that are productive members of society--instead of just paying thousands of students to take classes, but not receive an education.

Running Scared

Philip and I recently began running on a regular basis in order to get in better shape. This has been somewhat successful so far, though I find running in the mornings before I have my cup 'o joe not be very effective. Therefore, we have taken to running in the evenings. Last night, we were making our way down the Greenway into Nathaniel Greene Park. As we were trucking along, I heard Philip say, "Hey kitty kitty...oh, I think that's a skunk!" Sure enough, there were not one but three skunks sitting along the fence row.

We stopped jogging, and slowly started making our way toward the skunks, while trying to stay as far away from them as possible. As we inched closer, they started dancing around. Philip laughed and said, "I think they are fighting." Then, they turned around and stuck their tails in the air in our direction. I froze and prayed that I would not be taking a bath in tomato juice that night. As we stood there debating whether or not it would be worth it to make our way past the skunks and into the park, we saw someone coming toward us on a bicycle. I thought, We should warn that man about the skunks, but I was also afraid that the skunks would spray if I yelled. So we waited. The older gentleman on the bike coasted past and looked at us as though we were crazy. To be fair, we were staring intently at him to see if he would get attacked. Instead, the skunks slid back under the fence and hid from view.

Philip and I jogged safely along and laughed. Then he turned to me and said, "I didn't want to say anything because I kinda wanted to see if he would get sprayed!" Of course I replied, "Me too!"