I attended the Pittsburgh Art Institute online division for 4 years. Only to get to the point that I ran out of funds. I was not at all prepared for this to happen, and when I only had 10 more classes to go. But here I am with 4 years of school and almost have a degree and to also find out the if I do have that paper in hand it could be worthless.
I could look at this in a number of ways. I could say to myself that I wasted those 4 years and just pitty myself and say how once again I failed. Or I could look back on those 4 years and use what I learned and do something with it.
Education no matter where you get it from is still an education. Let it be that you love to read, listen to talk radio, take free online classes, take advantage of community college classes, take advantage of classes offered though your job. No matter how you end up learning something you still can be a well educated person. For me my education is costing me 60,000 dollars and I have no paper to show my accomplishments from the school. So either I do something with it or let it ruin my life. I decide to do something with it.
I 'm not a great artist. But I did learn how to do quite a few things that I enjoy and I'm not too bad at. So my goal for this year is to take my experience in crafting, my schooling, my job, my life and anything I will learn online and make something of it. If having a debt at 45 that has put you over the edge of life does not wake a person up nothing will. But I look at this way, it is not impossible either to pay this back.
Next week I"ll start in looking into what I can do with these loans. From the income based repayment plans, to paying what I can to who knows what else. I have an inventory of sorts to sell on Ebay. Everyday I learn something new about what is good to sell and what I have and how to go about selling it. On the top of my list is glass ware that I did not think we could do anything with. But I found out that it is possible to find buyers for this stuff. So I"m taking the plunge and listing these pieces. Also clothing seems to be a big seller. I have some I do not ware, my daughter has lots she grew out of and does not wear. So why not make a few bucks toward the large goal and get rid of the clutter in the process. And I do not have to look for a second job just yet. I can do this from home and still work my full time job as a lunch lady.
I'm looking at ways to sell my art and crafts too. Last year before my mom got sick I was working on designing a table to set up at craft shows. As it happen I was unable to do it because of helping my dad with my mom. So I'll be looking for shows later this year. I'm making the plunge and making stuff I love and putting myself out there. Other people do it and I figure why cant I.
This student loan mess. I did get myself into it because I had a dream and wanted that job. But God did not see it that way. Plus I do think I have been scammed in the process. I had classes transfer from another school for one. And that should of cut my costs down. Second I did not see that it would cost me this much to attend the school. And I asked several times how many classes and how long. At times I could not get a straight answer from my advisers. Who ever it was that month. I should of paid more attention to what was going on but I was focused on my classes and trusted the financial aid people was doing their job. I did not question it. I should of questioned what was going on before it got to late.
So here I am, stuck with 60,000 dollars in debt at 45. This is just my student loans.
If there is a will there is a way. I believe it with all my heart. I just have to hang in there and hope that I can get this going fast enough to keep the calls from coming.
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