$$$ vs B')

The deposit has been sent. I repeat, the deposit has been sent.

It's official, I have chosen a college and I have never felt more relieved. The copious amounts of stress I have been feeling have run off my back. The burden of decision is far gone and distant. I feel confident and genuinely excited to move on to the next stage of my life. I have a direction. I know where it is. I have goals and wants that are attainably albeit lofty in some respects.

But what about the rest of senior year?

Oh, thats right. I don't graduate tomorrow. I don't leave for school moments after the diploma. I still have one last summer to enjoy before the reality of adulthood falls into my lap. What am I going to do with this summer ahead of me? (Their are two sides to this story)

Firstly; I need to work. College is soul crushingly expensive. Unfortunately, my school of choice is not known for its gratuitous amount of student aid. However, you reassured a high paying job upon graduation; an investment to put it plainly. In order to defray this cost, I hope to make as much money as I can as soon as possible to get a head start on this debt. I have applied to the mill (you know, the big smoky dying thing that somehow stays afloat...) for summer help. The work I would be doing wouldn't be fun or remotely emotionally rewarding, but it would be extremely well paying. We're talking about making a solid fifteen to twenty thousand in one single summer. It comes with a price though. Shift work (twelve hour shifts plus overtime) wears down the worker. Almost all of my uncles have worked in a mill of some sort, and they all have told me that the work 'sucks' but the money is 'wicked.'

If I am accepted, my summer life would change so much. I love to be outside and to play baseball, but working in the mill will take all that away in exchange for some green paper. In addition to all of that, this will be the last opportunity I will have to be a true teenager of summer: camping trips, road extravaganzas, baseball games, tan skin, the smell of fresh cut grass and scorching beach days. This was the essence of last summer, but when it comes down to it I worked my ass off and only made two thousand buckaroos.

Basically, it comes down to "When do I want to grow up and make an adult decision?" Money is important and so is happiness. The future is important, but so is the present. Yet again, I find myself at another crossroads. One fork leads down the path to adulthood and less total debt, the other an overwhelming debt and teenage freedom. Either way I will be one poor sum'bitch.

Growing up is weird.