A Rant:

Well, well. I suppose that since I have not been too perturbed by the evil that is stress for the past month or so, I deserve the rainstorm that is now piling down on me. I leave for Semester at Sea on Sunday. Today is Monday. I discovered yesterday that my new contacts are the wrong prescription (yay!) and the earliest my optometrist can see me is Wednesday. I had to reconfigure some things, but that is fine.

Now, appointments and being busy are one thing, however factor in that I must be out of my house by Thursday (because my parents are having guests and they want them to stay in my room) and completely packed (for two and a half months!) by Wednesday, and the stress nozzle goes up a bit. Now, my room is a disaster area and I haven't done laundry in about three weeks, so I need to schedule fixing all that in between buying a backpack and my eyebrow appointment.

All this is fine, but the icing on the cake really came last night when my parents divulged that they will NOT be paying for another year of undergraduate study and only a portion of my graduate program. This, at a time when it is too late to apply for financial aid for fall and only 7 days before I embark on a venture where there is little internet or phone and almost no way for me to communicate with anyone not on the ship with me. So, I'd better figure it all out by Sunday.

Now, not paying for all of graduate school is one thing (some of the programs I am applying to are going to cost upwards of $130,000) and completely understandable. Not contributing to another (albeit, extra--since I could conceivably graduate with a bachelor's in August) year of undergraduate study, when it could mean a major difference in the graduate institution I attend, really tickles my stress-ometer. This means spending the last of my investments (which were in the range of $20,000 until Semester at Sea came along) and also having to work, since car insurance, medical insurance, textbooks, medications, and car maintenence is now all on me (and me has no job). Working is fine, I was going to get a job anyway. All in all, I suppose they're all issues I can get over. This final stress can be postponed until August 22nd, however when I return I will have to deal with getting a job that will pay me at least $1500 a month and still leave me time for five classes. And for the first time I will have to put all of that money to necessities and have little to none left over for the pleasantries. This, for a year; after this year, I am officially in debt as I then will enter the world of graduate school (likely on the east coast) and be anywhere from $4,000 to $50,000 in debt. At least it's not too late to file for financial aid for 2010.