The price for me to attend college this semester, including books, housing, an a-la-carte meal plan, and all the other fees imposed by VSU and the Board of Regents, was $5,518. My financial aid, including my Hope Scholarship, was only $4,000; I was $1,518 short. I decided I was going to take out a loan for the amount of money I still owed, get a job, and then pay it off after my semester was over. I ran into one HUGE problem: it is nearly impossible to get a job in Valdosta.
    I have applied to every on-campus job posted on the Student Employment website but have never had any success. I don’t have a car, and since there is no public transportation in Valdosta, there is no way to get anywhere without a car. I tried to incorporate a schedule with a friend who has a car so that if I had an off-campus job I could have a ride to work, but our schedules could never blend so that this process would work. I now feel as if I am stuck with this student loan with no way of earning any cash anytime soon.  It is hard to balance school classes, trying to find a job, and being stuck with a loan. Some of my friends have said, “It’s just one loan, calm down,” but it will be more than one loan and I will end up owing more money if I can’t even pay this one off. I am looking at the big picture. Being a full-time student is HARD and paying to be a full-time student is even harder.
     Valdosta really needs some sort of public transportation. For someone without a car, your only option is to hope a friend of yours can spare you a ride to where you need to go. I know we have the “luxurious” shuttle buses, but they don’t take you anywhere off-campus, so they offer no help in getting around the rest of Valdosta. It is a bad situation.
      It is a very hard place to be stuck. If I get an off-campus job I don’t have any way to get there, and I can’t even get someone to call me on-campus for a job. I hope that something will come my way and by some mysterious miracle, someone will call me and offer me a job, but I must admit that I am on edge. There is a nearby solution on the way (I hope). I have faith and anyone else going through the same thing should too. Keep faith alive.