What past events or experiences are among the best in your life?
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Can you share real-life-experience with college financial aid?
Comments (34)That is the beauty of our country's secondary education system, there's a fit for everyone and there's really no "right" or "wrong" school scenario for everyone. So, as parents and future college students, you just need to do the best you can to find a school that fits your child's interests and personality. As parents, I think we need to just resist the urge to intervene and make right every adversarial situation a young adult comes into contact with. They are adults at 18 and need to learn how to fend for themselves. That's what I actually like about college - it gives them 4 more years to grow up and mature before they're really on their own. As far as the FASFA, at the schools we applied to, it wasn't necessary for merit based awards - ie awards for grades/test scores. There was a long list of private grants/scholarships if you qualified for specific criteria - ie you had a family member that was a nurse, or an iron worker or a member of a specific union etc. We didn't qualify for any of those $$ although I did read each one carefully looking for a fit! I do believe that you need to complete the FASFA to apply for any of those, even if they stated it was a merit award and not soley need based. At a state public school here in Ohio, the awards are either financially driven (requiring a FASFA) or merit based. My son did get a merit scholarship, but taking into account the money he got from his athletic scholarship, I knew based on our income, he would not get any need based money. I'm sorry, but that form is a PIA and really didn't want to disclose all of our financial situation when I knew we wouldn't qualify. When I went to college a gazillion years ago, my parents filled out the FASFA because my brother and I were both in school and my mother was a school teacher and my dad a bricklayer. We thought while we were definitely not poor, with two kids in college, we were also not feeling flush with money. Of all the things I saved in the college scrapbook, I saved the response I got when I applied. Back then tuition/room& board was about $3300 a year for a state school. My FASFA came back and said my parent could afford $5800 a year for college expenses - and that was with my brother also in college. I truly do not know how they could come up with that number with two parents who had definitely middle class incomes, but again, they had no debt and no mortgage, so if you're financially responsible, you get no help. Granted if I had gone to a private school with a much higher tuition, we may have gotten something but, I was happy going to the state school, so while I did have alot of student loans, they weren't as much as if I had gone to a private school....See MoreLife events that changed you as a person?
Comments (40)In 1998 DH had a really good-paying job for that time (actually even for now) & a pretty big 401k for someone not yet 30 years old. I had a pretty good job & fair balance in my 401k. We also had a house payment & one car payment. Then DH decided he wanted to leave the security of his job & start his own business. I didn't want to do that, but that was his dream. I worried that if I refuse to even try that he'd always resent it. So he left to start the business, which actually went very well at first. We weren't as prepared as we should have been with savings in the bank, etc. But we needed to make a fairly quick decision due to a large project that we would lose if we spent too much time considering. Then he decided that he should start another related business. I worried that the time he would have to put into the startup would take him away from our main business, but he was sure it would be okay. Several months before DH left his job, we found that my mom's cancer had spread again. She was given only months to live. DH left his job in Aug, my mom died in Feb, & I was laid off from my job in April. That's a lot of major life events in a short time. For quite a while, my life involved working full-time, helping my parents at night & on weekends & doing the accounting for DH's businesses when I had time. I admit that I was distracted by the demands of working full-time & helping care for my mom. My dad was very difficult to deal with during this time. He was having a hard time accepting that mom was going to be gone & he was very angry & demanding. This made my life even more stressful. After I was laid off, we decided that I would work with DH managing the office & doing the accounting. So I sat down one day & really began looking at the bills. I knew we had been charging a lot on our credit cards. DH's original business, which had done well at first, was indeed suffering because he was spending too much time getting the other business started. He was putting off projects & the cash flow had really decreased. We were more deeply in debt than I had imagined. Things began to turn around some, but we were unable to make any progress on our debt. I kept the bills paid & made sure that our credit rating wasn't affected, but I was paying minimum payments on most things. We eventually ended up forfeiting his 401k to help pay some of our debt. Even so, we still had problems because business had dropped off. I sank into a very deep depression & was suicidal. Those were really dark times. My doctor believed that it was just too much happening too close together. He felt that I might have been able to handle things better had they not all happened one right after another. I did go on medication & it helped a great deal. I finally got up the courage to ask my dad for a loan. I was raised to be very private about finances & to not get into debt except for something major like a house or a car. It took a lot for me to admit to my dad that we had so much debt. After I explained the situation, he had one question, "Why didn't you come to me sooner?" He wasn't happy that we had gotten in so deep, but he was more than willing to help. He told me to get him a list of everything we owed & bring it to him. We then went to the bank, where he used one of his CD's to secure our debt. Consolidating it into one monthly payment with a much lower interest rate made it so much easier to deal with. DH went back to work with his old company soon after. We closed one business & sold the other to a competitor. I learned a lot from those bad times. One thing is that I make sure to pay close attention to our finances regardless of how busy or distracted I am. The other is not to let my pride get in the way. My dad would have helped us much earlier if I'd just swallowed my pride & asked, instead of pretending that everything was fine. I also learned that depression is an illness & not something that you can control. I used to think that there was no such thing as real depression & that people were just weak because they gave in instead of forcing themselves to be happy. I now know the truth about depression....See MoreShare Your Best Rose Experiences
Comments (20)Every single one of these stories is touching! Great thread idea Sara-Ann! I haven't been growing roses very long but I can think of a few little things - my MIL has the same name as a hardy shrub rose, and 4 years ago when her beloved dog had to be put down, I bought one and planted it where the dog was buried. She seems so happy with it, points it out all the time, and I'm so glad :) - for my first birthday after marrying DH, he asked me what I wanted and I told him I wanted a rose plant :) I didn't know anything about them, and neither did he, and I was also thinking that maybe I'd be disappointed because it wouldn't be a surprise :) But I was so surprised and touched that he asked questions at a garden center and picked from the roses they suggested the one he thought smelled the nicest - the rugosa Blanc Double de Coubert you know - and we planted it together and now we notice the suckers that come up each year and transplant them around. It's sweet and I like seeing sort of a different side of him :) - Actually it was that rose above that really got me into roses. I saw 'Blanc Double de Coubert' on the tag, but didn't know it was a name, thought Coubert was a store or something, anyway I googled a bunch of words on the tag and Pickering Roses came up. I looked at their catalogue and was so amazed at all the different beautiful roses and soon bought New Dawn at a hardware store (unruly heap of prickles...) and others, and on it goes. - LOVE having an excuse to stop to talk to people in their front yards! This might be my favorite thing :)...See MoreHave you had an experience that changed your life?
Comments (59)Thanks for posting the Holland story, Morz8. I first read it when DGS was diagnosed as a GERD baby. It was a help to me as I was figuring out how to help DS and DIL, who were overwhelmed by the situation at first. Especially as they live out-of-state. It is such a gentle lesson, but difficult - how to accept the unacceptable, and how to adjust gracefully to that which cannot be changed, and how to find the good in what appears so bleak. I haven't checked any boxes because I would have to check all of them. That's how touching these stories are! As Current Resident said, this is the internet at its best. Every person has a story. Even if you think you don't have a story, you do. I agree wholeheartedly that travel to a new place is a great way to challenge oneself, to find even a mild adventure, and to experience a change in perspective that can never be taken away. I remember what it was like returning to the States after my first year overseas in Israel and Jordan (some years before the 1967 war that changed my life), Israel then a second-world country, and Jordan almost third-world. I remember walking into my beloved Marshall Field's in the Chicago Loop and being bowled over, almost sick to my stomach at the vast amount of gorgeous stuff available there. I had totally adjusted to "poverty", small plain stores with not much in them, nothing remotely resembling a supermarket anywhere, few people owned their own cars, there was no tv, as neither country had television then, and on and on. But people lived with so much energy and happiness, with appreciation for the details of life and with plans for the future, just as we do. I did not understand how my values had changed until I got home. I was seeing the world with diffferent eyes now; this is what happens when you go to a different (and sometimes more difficult) place - your humanity expands....See More
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