BLOOD MONEY??

It's the beginning of a new month, and we all know what that means: BILLS DUE. So with Christmas Season creeping up on us, rent to be paid, due dates to be met....I think I can speak for the majority of us, that the weight of debt is settling in. As a college student, it's an even heavier weight than prepared for.

So the question is, when we start selling our belongings and our plasma to lighten the load....have we gone too far? When we start sacrificing our carefree, social life that college is supposed to provide, are we growing up too fast and losing sight of our youth? I personally can't say when I think enough is enough. I've given up every night this coming weekend. Not to be a college student and have a fun night out with friends, but to be with 3 and 6 year-olds babysitting in order to lesson the load of the debt the beginning of the month ensues. Not only have I sacrificed my social life, on Tuesday at 1pm, I will be spending the following three hours of my day sitting in a chair selling my plasma for a measly $15, if that!

The therapy of shopping, a stress reliever of the forgotten past. The ability to release creative energy into crafts and projects, a skill now rusty and hidden beneath cobwebs. The simplicity of a bubble bath and leisurely hours spent reading are replaced stealing minutes thumbing through magazines or mentally book marking pages in novels at the local Barnes and Nobles Bookstore. The amenities that were once an extension of my being have been dissolved into luxuries I can only enjoy in my dreams. My once free-time is now spent putting in extra hours at the office, babysitting, returning unused products to their stores for cash refunds, and now the final blow: selling my plasma.

Is this the only answer to our poverty brought on by college woes? Is this the only way to climb out of the dark tunnel we created, before it is too late and we are faced with the real debt the world out there welcomes to us after graduation? Spending our blood's money, is this what it's come to?