Friday, 14 March 2014

With a side of: Being Below The Poverty Line

So a thought ran through my head today. To give y'all an estimate, I spend about $150/week on groceries. That's my limit. Any more than that and we are taking money out of what we use for bills.
Now, applying to college costs $90. That's 60% of a week's groceries for us. That is a common known fee. Another fee that I had no idea about was the fee to save your spot. The amount of this one depends on where you go. For Canadore? $160. For the other school I was looking at? $250. Do you see where someone with my family's income may have a problem getting into college? My grades are awesome, I know that. That part I will probably never have any problems with. The part I do have a problem with, and I suspect this is one of the biggest problems, is that I pretty much have to choose between starving my family or being on social assistance/minimum wage jobs my whole life.
Going to post-secondary is important. It's something that everyone should do. But I fear that many people have to make the same or a more harsh choice. Getting 90%s mean nothing when you have to explain to your toddler that they won't be able to have milk with breakfast. Or telling your school aged children that they only have bread and butter for lunch.
It sucks that this is the world we live in.
P.S. I know that there are food banks and such to help out. My situation just made me think of the worst possible one. The one where, even after trying so hard, you still fail because you don't have enough money to apply or get accepted to college.

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