So while we collect horror stories, Congress continues to sell us up the river. Pell Grants, those wonderful little beasts that we can use and abuse without compunction, are now under fire from the current Congress. And to be honest, many of our parents are doing a little of the same. But this money thing may hit us the hardest, because it is the ultimate jail sentence. With sizable chunks of your post-college earnings allocated for paying off student loans, it's simply foolish to consider planning a wedding, starting a family, or putting a down payment on a home.
Money is the entry card to adulthood.
Indeed, if you actually go ahead and default on a loan, life becomes quite different. Certain drug stores don't take your checks anymore. After a few months, you start to feel genuinely disenfranchised, as if the picket fence and new car were silly daydreams anyway. After a few years, the haziness is replaced by a hardened cynicism, a defiant recklessness that comes with having nothing to lose. Which, again, may be a little overdramatic.