My grandfather, Sam, was a very good student - diligent, studious, and intelligent. Even though he grew up on a small farm in Missouri and went to a barely-there high school, everyone could tell he was going places. Really, he could attend any college or university he wished . . . and my grandpa dreamed of going to West Point.
Then the Great Depression hit and shattered all his dreams.
His mother and father - my great-grandparents - had to sell the farm. Sam finished high school and managed to secure a job with the CCC, but the hope of West Point was gone forever. There was no money to send him east, and if you had a job during the Great Depression, you better hang on to it, and hang on tight.
So Sam stayed in Missouri and went to the University of Missouri - Rolla, worked hard, got good grades, and graduated with a degree in Chemistry.
It wasn't what he had wanted. It left even the thought of the dream of West Point and even the American Dream - you can be anything you want to be - dead.
I know, I know that if my grandpa were alive today to take a look at this economy we're stuck with, he'd have a heart attack.
Because it's happening again.
Our economy is in chaos, crisis, and conflict. It's been there even before the headlines announced Black Monday. Our economy has been in a decline that has steadily leached away the youth's ability, our ability, to live the American Dream. Our educations are in jeopardy . . . because we're not going to be able to afford college. We're not going to be able to receive the financial assistance we need or take out secure loans. And the loans we do get will be hovering over us, unpaid, for the rest of our lives.
Youth in Missouri, in my state, my grandfather's state, are already in dire straights since our government squandered our only hope of state sponsored financial aid. Who knows how many other states are in the same situation?
All I can say is that I'm frightened. I'm frightened for my future, and the future of my peers. We face an ever-growing fear, an ever more possible question:
Are we going to be forced to sacrifice our hopes and dreams like our grandparents sacrificed?
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
Every state is going through the same thing, but I don't know if I can agree with your argument that financial aid to students is hurting. I go to school here in the great state of Missouri and as of yet no evidence or speculation to that point has occurred. Granted students whose college funds are in accounts affected by the economic blow are hurting, but governmental money regulated for this purpose are not necessarily lumped into the stock market collapse.
Money is tight and students are at risk if their family's college preparation has not panned out as excepted. Yes, many students are having to revamp their dream college plans for something more realistic. I was one of them. My first year of college was at a state school that was miserable and I got very little from the experience except a heap of gen eds. Luckily the economy briefly worked in my favor just enough to get me to a better school one state away.
No I never it made to the coast for college, but dreams change and mine seem to be panning out even though I am still in the midwest. Sure you can say "things didn't go according to plan so screw this" but unlike your grandfather's generation we have methods to get around this.
Your grandfather still got a degree and lived a good life. No it is no West Point, but be proud he pursued getting a degree. Many would have just given up (and did). That is the lesson to be learned. Just because our economy is less than ideal does not mean our generation is screwed.
Look at it as an interesting hurdle in the track of your dreams.
...You Know You Wanna...
My point with this post was not to say that we are facing absolute doom or anything. Just to express the fact that there is a lot of fear going around, and I used my grandpa's story to illustrate how bad it could be. Maybe I was too melodramatic. I often find myself caught between a rock and a hyperbole.
Basically what I'm trying to highlight, and maybe I should have thought about my post more than I did, was that thirty-forty years ago, you could haul hay for a summer and pay for a whole year of college.
Compare that to today when most people can expect tens of thousands of dollars of debt.
And I don't think dreams should have to be sacrificed due to financial reasons that could be avoided.