I quit. Ok, I don't quit. But I'm going to quit.

Ha. Welcome to my little emotional world. It's hard being married and living with parents at the same time. Add to that trying to get a college degree and it can almost push you over the edge.

Well, actually another added ingredient can attribute... the government. Let's just say a couple things about this, shall we? First of all, we live on disability. I had to close a retirement account last year just to help pay some bills. I had a work study of which I earned $1200. My adjusted gross income was $6000. Ryan got $8000 in disability pay.

And yet FAFSA thinks that we can afford to pay $4600 of my tuition. To put this into a little more context... let me tell you another little story. When I first applied at FAFSA 2 years ago I had to include my wages of being a school bus driver, which amounted to about $14,000. And yet I got full grants without any battles and my EFC (estimated family contribution) was $0.

Add up $6000 and $8000, what do you get? Oh! $14,000. And yet now they think we can shell out 35% of our income? (2 years ago we didn't have the disability benefits.) I just can't believe that they say at $14,000 for two people that I do not qualify for the Pell Grant.

I do not know what the full story is here... but I've got to say... just because we receive disability *snort* benefits, that seems to be the governments way of saying "That was gift money. And now we want half of it back if you want to go to school and better yourself, please."

Please. How does one person, let alone two, live on $8000 per year? I don't know what poor Ryan would do if he didn't have me. I feel sad for the disabled people out there who don't have the fortune of families.

I just don't know. I could go on and on about all this, but frankly I'm not in the mood. I could make mention about how I know a guy who was in the Army for 3 years and now receives $2000 a month in benefits. And I could tell you about how he has the biggest, baddest home theater system, computers and motorcycles galore and the government doesn't bug him about the money they give him.

I also know the world is not fair. Doesn't really make it easier to live with a short stick though.

Oh and the college thing... I really might quit if I really can't get financial aid. We'll find out on Friday I suppose. I have to wait for the FAFSA application to process first, then I'll go to my future college's advising office and pray that I can be helped by someone who really knows their stuff.

And if can get the financial aid that I really am deserving to receive I'll just hang in there and tough it out. For another two years.
Earlier today though I was fed up and wanted to just quit everything for good regardless of the outcome of financial aid.

We shall see. I really hope I do get a competent financial aid officer that can help me.

ETA:
But I just had to add one more thing...

Last year when I had to "fight" for my financial aid because last year FAFSA thought that I could afford $3800 out of my pocket for tuition... The financial aid advisor told me about a person she helped earlier that day who has all these benefits from fighting in Iraq - $80,000 to be exact.

And yet that person didn't have to pay a dime and got full grants. *sigh*