Personal Narrative: My Economic Recession

Economic Crash Creates an Amazing Upbringing Recently our country has experienced some extremely rough economic recessions which has caused countless Americans to change their everyday lives and their spending habits. This recession has affected mass amounts of people in a gigantic way, with my family being one of several. However, being in my first year of college and my family reorganizing our expenditures, it puts into perspective exactly what “pinching your penny” means. Especially with your first year of college proved to be the most expensive when it comes to tuition, meal plan, campus housing, and all of the other expenses that aren’t accounted for.
College has never even been a question for me growing up. It was always assumed
that I would graduate high school and move on to further my education. Whether or not that meant a four year university or community college, either way I would work to receive a degree. However, when the economy crashed, it took a big toll on my family. For a while we lived paycheck to paycheck, just trying to make ends meet. My sister and I were both understanding and even though it was difficult going from our previous lifestyle, to now needing to watch our spending habits, it was definitely a wake up call.
My parents ended up having to file bankruptcy in order to work to pay off our debt. When this first happened, both my sister and I were enrolled in private catholic school, which we paid monthly for, and might I add, wasn’t cheap. You would think with what our family was going through, the first thing they would cut back on, was pulling us out of school. Everyone in our family thought they were crazy for not doing so. Nonetheless, my parents explained that they wanted us in a well brought up school and receive a good foundation. They did everything they could to ensure our education, all the way to being put on financial aid. The school was understanding, however even then being at a young age, I couldn’t help but feel like a financial burden on my parents. We ended up foreclosing on the house I basically grew up in. Nevertheless, used that opportunity to move to a safer area with a more improved public school system, as I would be entering high school soon. A couple years went by and we were getting close to the conclusion of our bankruptcy, by then the way we were
living was our normal. I couldn’t remember what it was like before the economy crashed. We’d all accumulated the personalities of “You do what you can do, when you can do it. And if you can’t do it, then you can’t do it.” plain and simple. My sister and I, only asked for things if we truly needed them, and if the answer was “No” we were fine with it. The toughest part certainly was the fact the neighborhood we lived in was the “ritzy” area filled with wealthy people. Obviously we weren’t part of that group, as we were only renting the house we were in and yes, living comfortably, however didn’t have the same type of money to spend frivolously like our friends from school.
Before I knew it, we were out of our bankruptcy, it was my senior year, and graduation was right around the corner. It was time to start talking about colleges. My parents and I toured a couple different school and of course encouraged me to go after whichever one I wanted. Sure enough, Georgia Southern was my first choice at heart, however a part of me didn’t want to admit it due to the fact I know out of state tuition is crazy expensive. My parents decided to go ahead with the steps needed in order to enroll at Southern, with the backup idea being the local community college down the street from my house. I was super hopeful while also trying to be realistic to our situation. Freshman year already limits normal families spending habits related to their previous spending habits before entering college. I knew with my situation, even receiving the chance to be accepted into the school would be a dream come true. The freshman year transition seems to hit freshman tougher simply because these students are in numerous vast transitions, like being financially strapped. Although, in my case I tried to view it as a positive. With everything I had experienced at such a young age, I know how to budget my money and know my wants vs. my needs. Which is something hopefully freshman learn so by the time they’re sophomores, juniors, and seniors in college. Whereas for several freshman students who come in without any prior knowledge due to the fact they’ve lived with their families for the past eighteen years and possibly weren’t as open about their income and situation with their kids as my parents were, are now hit for the first time with having to make real financial decisions on their own. With the previous economic recession, I believe it contained numerous positive effects as well as negative ones too. One aspect I consider positive would have to be the timing that it happened. If it had occurred any sooner or any later, it could have changed the outcome of where I am today. Another positive being the type of person it made me become, the lessons it taught me, and the fact it made me have to group up a little sooner than most kids and in my opinion help me become more mature faster. In addition, one final positive I noticed was, when we finally finished paying off our bankruptcy, we were entirely debt free. If we hadn’t been we might not have been approved for all the loans I received in order to put me through college especially Georgia Southern. Being out of state, taking out loans was almost not even a question for me. With college being such a huge expense, my family needed a “helping hand” in paying tuition, as we are able to pay for it, just not all upfront in one sitting. Making payments was definitely the better option for me and I was blessed enough to have been approved, which was also a worry for us.
Freshman students go into college expecting to have an abundance of experiences that they will remember for a lifetime, and mine so far has been nothing less than memorable.
One of the most exciting experiences for a college student is the opportunity to be a part of Greek life. Unfortunately, before going into college students don’t consider that things like that cost more on top of the tuition you are already paying for. This experience would be even less likely for freshman college students who are either already on financial aid or even out of state students, myself as a prime example. I know personally from being a freshman out of state student, I needed to wait a year before being able to participate in Greek life, which was understandable coming from my family. They have already done so much for me, if waiting one year before I’m able to join is what they want me to do, then I will gladly wait. Yes, there were numerous negative aspects of the recession. Not knowing if we were going to be able to make ends meet, my dad losing his job for a couple months, finally finding a new job, moving out of our long term home, my parents doing everything they could for my sister and I, while still juggling bills and their jobs. To this day they are still my heroes and when I think of everything they did for me and my sister, I am still in
awe. In conclusion, the economic downturn had changed my family’s lives. I learned and met people every day that are in the exact same situation as we were. That was definitely comforting having a sense that we weren’t alone. To this day, I’m not sure if I would change anything. I’m where I am and I am who I am from the experiences I’ve been through and I’m so grateful for the family I was given. I’d do anything for them, as they’ve already done so much for me.