The Ridiculous Price of College Textbooks

Of all of the times that I have struggled financially up to this point in my life, my first years in college have to lead the list. All of this is well and good because I know that getting a good college education is going to assist me in finding a job that will help me throughout my entire life. What really stinks about this, however, is the fact that some of the things that go into a college education are just too expensive. This can make it difficult for the average person, such as me to get by.

One of the first things that I am going to mention is the fact that college textbooks are ridiculous, as far as the prices are concerned. I know that it costs a lot of money for companies to put these books together and there are production costs that need to be considered as well. I

have always wondered, however, why these textbooks are so much money compared to, for example, eastern European countries where other books of similar quality were much lower. I guess the traditions in countries such as Belarus, are quite different from what we know.

I spoke to some people, including my parents and a few college professors who told me that college textbooks were, at one time, much less expensive. As they became more expensive, however, something began to occur that really helped to drive the price up even further. This is the fact that the used book market came into play in a larger way than ever before.

Because the book companies were not selling as many textbooks that were new, they began to drive the price up so that they could continue to cover their expenses and still turn a profit. Although I understand how this works, still it is ridiculous for me to have to pay $500 per semester for new textbooks.

Another thing that I find difficult to swallow is the fact that housing is very expensive, even whenever you are staying on campus. This is something that has kept many people from being able to travel to college (and definitely not in an eco-friendly way, that’s even more expensive) and to get the education that they really want. There are always going to be low-cost possibilities that are available in the local area, but you really need to pick and choose before you decide on which one you are going to live in. After all, you need to be comfortable, even if you need to be comfortable at a discount.

All I have to say is, I don’t know what I would do without the student loan that I was able to get. I know that many people have had a difficult time with this, and affording everything from tuition to books to housing has really been a problem. I’m just hoping that I’m able to get through the entire college experience and to get out into the market whenever they are still some jobs that are available to be found, perhaps with a company that wants to make their business a little greener. Otherwise, I’ll have a very high priced education that I will never be up to pay for.

Sleeping With The Light On

When I was a very young child, I hated sleeping in the dark. It wasn’t necessarily that I was afraid of the dark but I just didn’t like the fact that there were not any lights on. I used to beg my parents to turn the lights on at night and then leave them on, and many times they obliged. Although they would come in and turn them off at some time during the night, I rarely ever woke up and recognize the fact that they were off.

As I got a little bit older, I began to dislike having a light on in the room more and more. I found it to be disturbing my sleep, especially whenever I hit my 30s and early 40s. Although I have not slept with the light on in years, anytime I fell asleep with the light on it would always interrupt my sleep enough that I would have to get up and turn it off to contribute as well, in my way, to go a little greener. I credited this to the fact that I was not sleeping as well as I used to whenever I was younger, and even the slightest noise would wake me.

It was then that I had a great idea that I would put a timer on the light so that it would automatically turn off at a specified time. This worked for a little while but as it turns out, my bright idea didn’t last for very long. This is because whenever it did turn out in the middle of the night all the electricity was cut to the light. There were several times whenever I woke up and needed to turn on the light in order to find something or else just to have a little bit of light as I walked around the bed across the room. After stubbing my toe a few times, I decided that I would try a different method altogether.

For a while, I decided that I was going to wear a mask over my eyes in order to make everything black so that I was able to sleep soundly. In this way, I was able to keep a light on in the room but at the same time, was able to sleep without too many problems. This became difficult because I tend to be rather restless whenever I sleep. I can’t tell you how many nights I woke up with the mask halfway around my head, or uncomfortably tangled in my hair. This also became a problem when I got married, since my wife could not sleep with the lights on in the bedroom.

I finally decided that I am going to sleep with the light on, although I did switch to a small plug-in light that threw most of the light that came off down towards the floor. This allowed me enough light to get across the room without stubbing my toe while at the same time, not keeping me up at night because of the additional light in the room. I find it rather odd and amusing that at a later time in my life, I have pretty much gone full circle and have gone back to sleeping with the light on again.