Woes of a starving student

Every Sunday morning I wake up with that same stomach ache that anchors itself right into the pit of my stomach. Recalling my weekend festivities, I check off the assumed factors that would normally contribute towards this aching misfortune: it’s not the drinks, nor the greasy food I may or may not have had the night before. My phone does not have a tendency to send out uncontrollable text messages that would be deemed “embarrassing” and I swear that assignment that is due in the next week will be complete. I have not followed the typical student protocol of waking up hungover (thank God) and expand my options outside of my bed’s perimeter.

Walking over to my wallet, I open it and see imaginary moths flying out immediately. My desired lifestyle and need to consume has once again taken over my week and the stomach ache settles. I am a starving student and as I try to recalculate my money in order to get me through the week, I ask myself “Where the heck did my summer job money go?”

Entering second semester always feels darker. Literally it is. It’s pitch black before the dreaded three-hour evening classes begin, temperatures are freezing and ripping our skins dry (if dressed inappropriately) and once all the first semester festivities, Christmas and back-to-school textbook spending gets calculated, you realize that you are absolutely screwed when it comes to finances.

But how did we get to this dark spot in our lives? I mean we were always classified as “starving students” the moment we bolted out of our summer jobs and began the year with uber-spirited days of O-Week and Homecoming.

We managed to endure numerous nights of kareoke at Chainsaw, took advantage of Phil’s and their cheap drinks and we have even managed to welcome Cheeses Murphy into our lives by spending money on grilled cheese Inceptions (have you tried it? It’s delicious).

However now I find myself weighing options between having enough money for groceries, at least one Starbucks drink and making sure that — phew — the required readings for a course one posted for free as PDF files.

Now I may be getting overly dramatic but I think it is important to emphasize and acknowledge that in second semester, it gets tough. And I’m not talking about grades, it’s about the fact that we had such a great first semester with all of our festivities, that sometimes it’s hard to realize that we may need to cut back from time to time.

We are in a “dark” spot already with the weather and shorter days, money woes and being fully engulfed in the starving student stereotype definitely does not help. With the grades, the laundry, making sure we’re healthy and budgeting, it is no wonder that one or a couple of the factors slip out of line from time to time.

If I want to learn one thing when I graduate university it is this: learn how to balance properly. See, I know all of this and yet still the moths just keep on flying out of the wallet. I will master it eventually. Maybe.

So, for those who had to have Kraft Dinner for the fifth time this week, I hear you — it sucks.

Now here’s some advice that only my father would tell me: get a job (if you don’t have one already) and say no to Frat Burger outings.