Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Woes of a grad student, part 1: No money.

Today I went on a reconnaissance trip to Gothenburg with a friend in order to locate the political science building that is to be my new second home for the next two years. And being from a small town where the shopping is limited, we also browsed the stores. To be accurate, I browsed and my friend bought. This was hard. 

Understand something: I love to shop. And I don’t buy crap. I like the things that I buy to be made of quality materials, which naturally ups the price tag. Since I’ve had a steady income for the last several years, this has not been a problem. My salary has been modest, but I’ve also led a relatively scaled-down, inexpensive existence (if one disregards all of the traveling). So I’ve been able to afford some of the finer things in life. 

Not anymore. Now I attend grad school. Now I’m living on student loans. Now, suddenly, I have no money to spend on anything other than the. Absolute. Necessities. 

Boring. SO boring. 

So today as we perused shoe stores, clothing stores, department stores, I felt the depressing reality set in. I can’t buy any of this. Having a “day on the town” will only be upsetting from now on. Not forever of course, but for what feels like a pretty long time. Ahhhh what have I done?

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