Y2K Survivor

Too Much Credit

 

Graduation was last night.  We know a couple of kids that walked across the stage, so we went and we cheered.  My old Speech and Debate coach was there handing out programs, like he was when I graduated nearly 30 years ago.  The old fucker still looked like the youngest school employee out there.  It was uneventful and pretty uninspiring.

 

I did notice the Valedictorian made a point to express how horrific the Middle School years were in the system.  I have always contended that all the problems in our local school system begin in the Middle School.  I think the administration is incompetent, I think they pander to the lowest common denominator and I think they lack a basic understanding of childhood developmental needs.  Boy could I ever bend your ear on this topic!  I worked in the system for nearly two years, on all of the campuses across the county when I first moved back into the area.  So my observations are not from anecdotal evidence offered by disgruntled kids, but a personal assessment from a trained, degreed and certified professional.  And while I think this issue needs to be addressed by the community, it is not what this post is regarding.

 

Last night I heard several speeches from adults and graduates alike.  They talked of endings and futures and "grasping the brass ring."  What they never discussed was credit.  They were not told that as graduates their alma mater in the final act of in-loco parentis, probably sold their names to credit card companies.  Thus in a few short weeks they will be offered a variety of forms of "free money."  The generation raised on stories of Kevin Smith, who maxed out his credit cards to make a movie with his friends and became a Hollywood Mogul, will be given the keys to the mini vault. 

 

They will be taught that adults in the modern world live off of managed credit.  Everybody is in debt, wether it's school loans, car loans, home loans or business loans.  The world wants you to succeed and if they can make a little profit off of lending you a helping hand, more power to them!  So these bright eyed and eager graduates are turned loose on a world full of predatory lenders, cash advance stores and the inherent evil of Citibank.   They are not told of the banking deregulation rules that have lost millions of people their homes and life savings.  Nobody told them they are being released into the wild like quail at a Vice Presidential hunting party.  Crooks and scoundrels will surround them and start taking pot shots at their future because with the changes in bankruptcy laws they don't give out bad loans but lifetimes of servitude.

 

If I could speak to one single graduate I would tell them how proud we are they made it this far, the first major completion of a lifetime as an adult.  They will, with God willing, have an adult life four times longer than they experienced as a child.  They will know joys and heartache, victory and loss.  The only real advice anyone can offer is you can't barrow your way into wealth.  So put the cards away until you learn how to live within your means.  Knowledge and responsibility do not magically appear with a diploma, but opportunities to ruin your future do.  Go out and learn, and love and experience life, but remember there is a huge difference between what you want and what you need.  With time and wisdom you can find what you deserve.

 

For those of you who have already graduated and were not able to benefit from these inspired words.  I guess you're just fucked.