Can we panic naow?
I've just put down the payment of my Grad School study fees.
Which means I am now about ten minutes away from gently rocking on my couch, with my head between my knees, whimpering about "failure" and "burning my lower middle-class parents' retirement money for flimsy education".
I should elaborate: I'm German. Up until about 5 years ago, we had no study fees. At all. because education should be free for all. Then, we had study fees (following months of protests) of about 600,- euros a semester. About 6 months before that decision was made, I went to college in the Netherlands. At the time, my annual fees were 1500,- euros. About 1000,- of which I got back each year, because I was German and could've gone for my own country's free education (I was in the last class granted that refund. SCORE).
Oh and also, this year: my home state's (Northrhine-Westphalia) government got rid off the study fees again. I know. It's a land of joy and joyness.I can just feel all my US friends across the Atlantic going
So I am really, REALLY not used to that amount of money being poured into my useless brain. I could always get by on my pert-time job and a bit of support from my parents. Mind you, I already am sitting on a bit of a study loan which went towards financing my abroad internship, having pulverised all my saving during my Erasmus term.
I AM TERRIFIED I'll never be able to pay my parents back. Or that this MA I chose will prove to be a pointless fancy. Oh, gaaaawwwwwwd....
Somebody talk me off the ledge.
Also: I am now an aunt. :)
Which means I am now about ten minutes away from gently rocking on my couch, with my head between my knees, whimpering about "failure" and "burning my lower middle-class parents' retirement money for flimsy education".
I should elaborate: I'm German. Up until about 5 years ago, we had no study fees. At all. because education should be free for all. Then, we had study fees (following months of protests) of about 600,- euros a semester. About 6 months before that decision was made, I went to college in the Netherlands. At the time, my annual fees were 1500,- euros. About 1000,- of which I got back each year, because I was German and could've gone for my own country's free education (I was in the last class granted that refund. SCORE).
Oh and also, this year: my home state's (Northrhine-Westphalia) government got rid off the study fees again. I know. It's a land of joy and joyness.I can just feel all my US friends across the Atlantic going
So I am really, REALLY not used to that amount of money being poured into my useless brain. I could always get by on my pert-time job and a bit of support from my parents. Mind you, I already am sitting on a bit of a study loan which went towards financing my abroad internship, having pulverised all my saving during my Erasmus term.
I AM TERRIFIED I'll never be able to pay my parents back. Or that this MA I chose will prove to be a pointless fancy. Oh, gaaaawwwwwwd....
Somebody talk me off the ledge.
Also: I am now an aunt. :)