Shifting Gears

We have been talking as a family about the possibility of a visit to a friend of ours who lives in Morocco. A friend who I knew in graduate school, and who recently invited us to his country for a visit. Looking into this, we realized quickly how fast costs add up, between airplane tickets, hotels, food, etc. My son goes to the local Junior college here in Olympia, and works two different part time jobs while going to school full-time, one as a book keeper, one as lab technician. His love is in art, and he hopes to go to Evergreen State when he has gotten his two year degree at SPSCC. My husband and I were thinking how cool it would be for our son to have a chance to study abroad for a year, if he could get a scholarship. My life as a college student was so different. As a successful CEO in Belgium, my father was able to pay for private university expenses at 4 year colleges in the US for all 4 of his children. I did not worry about tuition or paying for school until I got to graduate school in Austin, Texas. There I got instate tuition, because I qualified to teach Spanish as an assistant instructor, which paid enough for rent and living expenses, while I was getting my Master's degree in Spanish and Latin American Literature. My husband Michael, whom I met while in graduate school in Austin, where he was working on his Master's degree in Clinical Psychology, too, got instate tuition the same way I did and was working while going to school. Whatever money I could possibly have inherited was whisked away cleverly by devious persons in the family war, and my husband's mother is a woman of means who has no interest in being there for her grandchildren' college education. Combined with the uncertain economy due to terribly selfish politics in this country right now, our son, who should have had an edge financially, does not, and is no better off than my father was when he started his life as a young adult after WWII. The American Dream nowadays, is more than ever what it is really is, as aspiration, rather than a reality. I am hoping the results of the next Presidential election don't evaporate that aspiration to a mere whisper and illusion. Meanwhile, we hope our son will qualify for a scholarship so he can complete his college education, as he is a very bright student who has always had very good grades.