ILLUMINATION BOOK CHAPTERS

Zero to Family Hero-Chapter 6

What You Don’t Know Will Stop You

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“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”

— Albert Einstein

The Story

Just what was it that I didn’t know when I returned to college? The list is endless of the things that a person that had graduated high school at sixteen and was now continuing their education by returning to college at twenty-three did not know.

Let’s start with the first things first. I’ll capture the things that matter the most.

Number one. Books are not free.

I had no idea that the college did not provide books. I thought that the books came with the class. I had no idea that you had to pay for the books. Worse than that, I had no idea that you could buy used books for a reduced cost. So, there are books, and there are used books for the same class that you can buy.

Number Two: There are fees associated with college.

That’s money you have to pay for random things that make no sense. There’s a lunchroom fee, a dorm fee, a book fee, and a class fee, and all kinds of other expenses must be paid. So, remember, it’s not just your tuition that you have to pay; it’s tuition plus fees plus costs.

Number Three: Food is not free.

Everywhere I looked when I visited the university, students had trays, got food, and ate it. Simple, right? Nope. You must have a food plan, especially if you’re in a dorm. That means that you, your parents, or your financial aid pay for a meal plan before you can eat in the cafeteria every day. Well, every day except Sunday evenings when you have to find meals on your own.

Number Four: You’ll need spending money.

You’re going to need cash because you might want to buy some toilet paper. You might want to buy a pack of gum. You can’t walk around with no money at all. No money at all, and being a college student is beyond “broke.”

Number Five: Nobody cares.

Let me make this entirely clear to you. No one cares if you come to class. No one cares if you pass or fail. No one cares if you do your work or take your quizzes. No one cares if you eat. No one cares if you’re sick. No one cares if you’re well. No one cares if you graduate college. No one cares. The only person who is responsible for what is happening is you. No one cares. I hope I have said that enough times. The only person who is concerned with your success or failure is you.

Number Six: Work-study is not exciting.

Work-study is what you get if you have a Pell Grant or a corporation supporting you. It is not sitting in class and taking notes for the professor like you see on TV. There are two kinds of work-study. First, there are jobs that the university makes up, so they can say the students have jobs and pay them. Second, there are real jobs that take physical and mental energy to perform. Needless to say, students usually want the made-up positions, so they can study while at work (i.e., work-study).

One of my work-study jobs was to watch the gym at night. That’s right. I sat in the gym and watched it, making sure nothing happened, and no one came in. That was great for doing my homework, but I couldn’t go to sleep. I just sat there.

Another one of my work-study jobs was crushing peas for a professor who was running an experiment. I went four nights a week, each night gathering up the hundreds of pea plants peas marked for that day and putting them in a big crushing station. I’d pinch off the tops, crush up the peas, put them in an accelerator, spin them around, suck the juice off the top, and put the juice in a freezer marked with the date. I hated peas by the end of that quarter, and I worked that position for two quarters. Pea-crushing is a mind-numbing and physically demanding job.

The work-study job that made me even crazier was copying tests for the library. After professors gave tests, they could put them in the library. They would provide a numbered copy to the library, the library would copy the tests and answer keys, and they would be put in files for students to review. Students were always chomping at the bit to get their hands on the tests and the correct answers. People would try to bribe me to copy their tests faster. I never understood, and I still don’t, because the tests had already happened. I never took the bribes. I copied the tests and answers in order and put them in the library.

So, work-study is not exciting. No sexy, handsome professors are running around for you. Work-study sucks.

Number Seven: Grants and financial aid forms are mind-numbing.

I would get my forms in February and would start working on them for the following year. The forms were both complicated and funny. They force you to ask your parents questions about their finances that they never wanted to share with you. Awkward.

Also, be forewarned: the interest rates are ridiculous.

Number Eight: Applications for admission take time

When my daughter applied for vet school, the forms were so hard that my husband and I had to fly to where she was and figure them out together. Remember to start early. You will need to ask questions to understand what information they want. There will inevitably be a question that sends you to page twenty-seven to figure out the answer for Part A. Page twenty-seven will then send you to page fifteen to figure out Part B, but Part B will need some answers from page eleven first. That is how college applications go.

The Lesson

Those are the eight “biggest basics” that I didn’t know. There was more about the culture, of course, but you’ll figure that out yourself. These things would stop you from going to college, and you don’t want to be bothered by that.

The Exercise

Obtaining your college degree will make a significant difference to your approach with your children. Your Hero knowledge will make a difference to your family. Here is the difference having just one person with a degree makes.

The differences match the sequences above.

Number one. Books are not free.

My son and daughter had their college syllabus and books by their second day of class. The moment they knew their schedule, they brought their books.

Number Two: There are fees associated with college.

I researched the fees and expenses when the children applied to the school. We knew to ask and put aside the money for the fees.

Number Three: Food is not free.

We researched and understood the food plans available. We choose and signed up for the one that matched their eating habits.

Number Four: You’ll need spending money.

We set up small bank accounts for each of them with small weekly automatic deposits.

Number Five: Nobody cares.

We had a discussion with each child about how they were in charge of themselves.

In his third week of school, my son said,” this taking care of yourself is some bull.”

We laughed.

Number Six: Work-study is not exciting.

Both children did not work during their undergraduate years. My husband and I have multiple degrees and have supercharged our finances by working numerous jobs simultaneously. They both worked in graduate school, which they paid for themselves.

Number Seven: Grants and financial aid forms are mind-numbing.

Financial aid forms were filled out the fall before they were due to graduate high school. We filled out the portions of the documents requiring our financial information.

Number Eight: Applications for admission take time.

All applications were completed by the winter before they went to college.

As you can see, the Hero portion we discussed before kicked in to change the game. Your experience going to college will make their expertise incredibly better.

Get your hands on some informational forms about going to school. You will need to go to a college campus to get these. While you are there, visit the campus bookstore. Walk around to get an idea of how much books cost.

Next, learn what it will take to get the degree you want. There are many college syllabuses posted online. Find one for a class in your chosen area and examine the curriculum. Get prepared for what you will need to do when you’re at school.

Congratulations! You now know the things I didn’t know when I was starting. But the work doesn’t end there. In the next chapter, we will discuss how you must change to succeed at university.

Toni Crowe All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Toni Crowe retired as the Vice President of Operations to pursue her dream of being a writer. Toni has written six books, two of which won the 2019 Reader’s Choice Gold Awards. Her bestselling business book, “Bullets and Bosses Don’t Have Friends: How Do You Manage A Man Sitting With His Dick in His Hand?” was one of the winners. Her first book, “Never a $7 Whore” was the other.

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