The Truth About The Cost Of College

In 2000, I was an 18-year-old high school dropout without a GED and I was faced with the decision of whether I wanted to go to college. For certain, I couldn’t attend an Ivy League school or even a State University. I would have to take some courses at my local community college and complete my GED before I could actually enroll as a full-time student there.

A quick story of how I got to be in that position: I got sick in the 9th grade. I didn’t know what it was, but I was exhausted all the time, even after a full night’s sleep, I felt like I hadn’t slept at all. My grades dropped so low I got a final grade of 22% out of a possible 100%. After that, I took home school but was still too tired, so I just didn’t do the work, and essentially dropped out. It would take twenty years to find out I actually had Lyme disease, an invasive bacterium that one can get from ticks and similar sources. More on that another time.

Back to college: By 2000, I was still feeling drained but not as severely as in high school. Still, I had a choice to make: How was I going to provide for myself going forward? I had some money saved up, so I could live for about a year or two, but after that, I’d be broke.

The first thing I needed to do was figure out if going to college made sense. Because I was sick and didn’t know the cause, I felt a real sense of dread at the thought of spending 4 years in college. These were my prime years, I didn’t want to spend them in a classroom, I wanted to get out and experience life. I took…