riddle...

Setting the scene: I spent an hour on the phone in my childhood bedroom, now temporarily also my current bedroom, at my parents' house with my best friend, southern to the core, who is currently in Pittsburg with her boyfriend while he gets his PhD. She and I both have completed college.

Now tell me this; tell me why we were both in tears stressing about how we were going to make ends meet. Tell me why we are both fighting tooth and nail to not even get ahead in life, but just to get by. Tell me why we both struggled, and sweat, and studied into the wee hours of the morning because we spent the better part of our day working in order to pay the rent, through college in order to earn a reputable degree only to find ourselves in jobs totally and completely unrelated to our field of study. Tell me why we found ourselves sacrificing, making hard choices, just in order to eat. Tell me why it's such a standard, such a stereotype for college students to be poor. Tell me why I'm making payments on loans I'll have until I'm 40 years old.

They say America is the land of opportunity... but for who? Where is America really giving the opportunity away? I know why I have loans up to eyeballs. Because I'm a white, lower-middle class American woman. I'm single. I have no children. I do not receive assistance from my parents - I am independent. BUT because I'm a white, lower-middle class American woman, the Federal standards measure me to be better off. Than who? Instead of finding grants, instead of receiving the assistance where and when I needed it, I was forced to sign away my future to the hands of Sallie Mae. Why am I being punished for being an average American who simply couldn't afford to go to college on my own?

Tell me this: tell me why I'm not the only one experiencing this. Tell me why my best friend and I are in interchangeable positions. Tell me why we're counting our pennies every day, spending our paychecks before they even arrive on bills, meanwhile the government is throwing money at illegal aliens, and drug addicts, and alcoholics, and people who don't have the sense to use birth control. Tell me why people who are content to just sit back and have someone else do all the work get the benefit?

What has happened to America? This is no longer the land of opportunity. This is no longer "fight for what the American Dream". Ask someone on the street what the American dream is. America now means laziness, obesity, sloth. America now means help those who refuse to help themselves.

Riddle me this: Why are the people who want to work, who want to succeed, who want to make a name for themselves, watching the world get pissed away?