What's The Cost of an Education?

On July 20, 2021, I nearly died trying to pay my tuition to Florida International University (FIU). A bit dramatic, but here's what went down. Last year in the summer of 2020, I found out about a dual masters degree program between FIU and Miami Ad School (M.AD) where one can earn an MS in Communications and a MS in Copywriting. There's a ton of work we must do, and I've experienced passive aggressive acts by classmates that I don't respect at all, and I'm to the point now where I'm asking is this worth it? 

In May of this year, after the school received $6,000 worth of student loan money, I was given a bill for $1,334 and some change. It's the remaining balance for summer courses towards the degrees, and they [FIU] said if I didn't pay it then I couldn't come back on campus or can even be dropped from the program all together. I sent the director of the program an email stating why America was falling behind in education because of the rising costs of college and grad schools, but she didn't care. I don't like giving up on things easily, so I decided to get a job in order to pay off the bill. Ironically enough, at the start of the program, the top executive of Miami Ad School said having a job would hinder us from course work, but I digress.

At first, I tried landing a paid internship in marketing or at an agency because M.AD wanted us to search for one anyway for the summer. But when that didn't happen as I hoped, I jumped back into security officer work, since I still have my class D license as a backup. I landed a gig that only lasted a week and a half, but I was able to knock off a $500 chunk of what I owe. I'm still with the company, but the client rescinded the contract and let all the guards go. So now I'm taking gigs with the company as they come. Even more messed up because I thought I couldn't show up to school until the bill was paid, I thought I didn't have any classes after summer A was completed. But in the middle of my shift during the week and a half at the initial security gig, I found out I was scheduled to attend four new courses for M.AD. So now I'm playing catchup with my work all this quarter with ad school, and its annoying to say the least.

Anyway, back to the paying back of this funky ass bill. Luckily, I have enough time to lineup the amount of work days needed (FIU classes start in late October) to make this happen. But I was unaware of this in July. If you continue reading I'll explain what I mean. You see, I thought with this program, the FIU communications portion, resumed in August like a regular college degree semester. So I thought I had but a few weeks to make moves. With this in my head, I figured I can donate plasma to the CSL Plasma Center in order to take advantage of this donation and payment program that allowed a person to make up to $800 and up for your first eight donations. Needless to say that didn't go so well.

While giving plasma for my first and only time, I went in not having drank enough water or eaten much food. I had a bottle of water, some almonds, cookies, and something else small. But not enough to fully give plasma safely. This I wasn't given much of a warning beforehand. To make this story short, towards the end of the process, I became light headed and damn near passed out due to lack of blood. The machine that separated the plasma from the red blood cells was able to extract as much plasma as it could, but couldn't return the pint and a half of blood into my body. The clinic ended up throwing away, my precious red blood cells.

Even worse, during the process the attendants kept moving the needle around in my vein to make sure I could continue draining blood into the machine. They shifted that damn needle around so much I thought they were going to stretch open the small hole it created. For what I was able to give, they gave me $100 that I quickly paid down on my tuition. But it was a horrifying process altogether, and I don't ever want to go through anything like that again.

So amongst all the frustrations and foolishness I asked myself: So what's the cost of an education? Would you bet your life on it, risking it all for progress and connections, or will you toss your hands up and leave it where it stands. There are immigrant who go through great odds just to make it to the U.S., and maybe this is just part of my immigrant journey. What I do know is of all else fails, I'll definitely jump into something more appealing to me as off now. For those going to college, good luck. Just remember that what doesn't kill you makes you angry, and that is what you can use to motivate yourself into becoming much stronger.

Nicholas A. Brown aka Mmeri Oji Berko

#ChuurchOnTheMove