Just Completed a FAFSA

Somebody ought to come up with a new acronym for this.  And it ought to be a lot more nasty than “FAFSA”.  FAFSA sounds like some sort of 1970s diet soda drink, you know what I’m saying?  You ever taste the original Diet Dr Pepper?  I think it contained FAFSA, that’s what made it taste like antifreeze.  <shudder> 

If you’ve ever filled one of these out for the first time, I guess you know it’s kind of depressing.  If you’ve done your taxes there aren’t any answers that you don’t have access to, but it is still kind of tedious.  That amount of money you have saved away that seems so danged puny to you starts looking too danged BIG when you fill out FAFSA.

Plus you have to start declaring in concrete terms that your eldest is headed off for this next big step.  By concrete terms, I mean you begin to be faced with the stark reality of “OMG!  We can’t afford this!!!” 

I checked off on campus living for every school Justin wanted us to send this to (and that list sort of surprised me).   Well, there wasn’t a place for “Mom and Dad’s cardboard box, which is what they’re going to be living in once they start paying for this ride”…

Seriously though I believe that first semester at least you should experience on campus living.  Makes you want to rush home and hug Mom and Dad around the neck.  Yeah, even Dad.  Shoot, maybe even little brother.

“FAFSA”.  Yeah, that’s about the odds we’re gonna get any help from the feds sending this boy to school. 

ME: “What are the chances we’ll get some aid”?

THEM: “FAFSA.”

ME: “What’s ‘FAFSA’”?

THEM: “A value slightly south of zero…..”