Shout Out to All My Dropouts!

Let's hear it for the high school kids that never graduated! The college kids that ran out of funds!
HOLLA!




I am amongst you.


Yes. You read that right.
I never graduated high school. Not true, formal high school. I was kicked out the last semester of my senior year. I then went to an adult education program, and tested out of my final few credits, and graduated from there. I have a high school diploma from an adult education facility.

Now, I am dropping out of college.
Why, you ask? PrettyWreck, why would you ruin your dreams?

Because.
My parents are broke.
I'm broke.
They cut the program at the current school I go to. The only other is at a bigger university that's three times as expensive per credit hour.



I have no scholarships.
I apply, and apply.
Also for federal grants.
No dice.



Now my parents just told me that our finances are worse than they realized.
I owe upwards of $5k on medical bills. I have $75/month I'm paying to one hospital, and another, chances are, I'll have to pay $100/month to it.
My bills are currently about $1000/month. I make $1200/month. Now I just got told that I"m going to have to start paying $200/month in rent.



Goodbye dreams of higher education.
Goodbye chances of true financial independence.

My grades aren't high enough for scholarships.
I'm not smart enough, really. Well...that's a lie.
I don't care enough, really. I can't make myself care.
Not enough to pull up my grades.




So I'm switching. I'm two classes off from an associates degree, which I think I"m going to do. I'm going to try and pull out a loan to get this certification that'll certify me in nutrition, and post rehabilitative exercise therapy, as well as give me a third personal trainer cert. That'll knock up my pay range at my current job. I'm going to stay at current trainer job for only the few months I need to get experience, and then I'm bouncing out to a more prestigious gym where I can be a private contractor, take private clients, and train them for twice as much. In the meantime, while I save up, I'm going to quit my security job, and become a waitress, since apparently, you can get up to $150-$200 a night in tips. If I work 6 hours at minimum wage of $7.55, and make only $80 in tips, then after taxes, I'd be making about $120/night. If I can do this 5 nights a week, that's $610 a week, or basically twice what I'm making now. So I'd really only need to make $40-$50 in tips at 6 hours a week. I'll need to talk to a few people who I know that do waitressing, but you know what?
I'd be on my feet.
Flexible hours.
I'd be moving. Walking. Active.
Earning more money.
Have more time to spend at the gym.


Sounds like a good fucking plan to me.
And a way to pass the time while I save up to either pay up front for this new certification, or else find a way to eventually go back to school full time and finish it off.



Let's hear it for the fuckups, my friends.
Let's hear it for us failures.
We're given everything at birth, and somehow, we lose it all, and have no idea what happened.


Fucking...everything.
Damn it.