By Molly Byrd, Assistant Copy Editor
A frantic phone call to mom or dad cannot always be what you rely on to get yourself out of a bind. If you are constantly depending on others to do everything for you, how will you ever learn independence?
It is pitiful when parents hand their children every little thing their hearts desire because they will get quite a slap of reality once they graduate and can no longer rely on daddy’s credit card.
One of my friends actually had someone ask her how to fill out a check the other day. If you are incapable of filling out a check your senior year of college, it is critical you wake up and understand what is to come next year: bills, bills and more bills. To pay a bill, you must know how to correctly fill out a check, mail it in and keep a record of your spending. Even if your parents tell you it is OK for you to use their credit card for anything, prove to them you do not need to take advantage of them every chance you can. Stop eating out every single night, resist the urge to get your hair highlighted every other week or get a job, so you can actually be the one writing the checks that pay your bills.
For those of you who think you are still at home where your parents will do your dishes and wash your clothes, you are wrong. Roommates do not take kindly to doing your dirty work. Do not let your laundry pile up until the end of the month when you take a trip home. Change things up for once and face the washer yourself with a box of Bounty and a fistful of Tide. You will see it is not as bad as you have let yourself think.
After finishing a load of laundry, take a look at that pile of dirty dishes in the sink. If you had taken an extra five seconds when you were done eating to scrape off your plate and place it in the dishwasher, you would have saved yourself from an attack of fruit flies, or roommates for that matter.
Responsibilities such as cleaning, cooking, paying bills and washing clothes are a crucial part of growing up. Pushing these responsibilities onto others teaches you zero self-reliance. Even if you do not need a job, get one. If not for the money, do it for the experience.
Someone who has worked his or her way through college every day to pay for school, rent and other bills, finds it difficult to witness to someone else who is continuously turning to his or her parents for money to do frivolous activities. Jealousy can escalate in those who are “less fortunate,” but in all actuality, are they to be considered less fortunate? By learning to budget their money and time, they are taught independence and preparation well in advance for their first career. I would say that is far from being less fortunate.
It is not necessarily wrong to have your parent’s financial support during college, but taking advantage of it will only hurt you in the long run. It took me a long time to realize I should consider myself blessed to have parents who pushed me to learn how to depend on myself at a young age. If you start now by relying on your own capabilities and resources, you can be well-prepared for what will happen after graduation day.
