Is there anyone in America who is still normal? I can’t think of a single person over the age of 30 who is a single virgin waiting for “Mr. Right.” Everyone I can think of thought they found their Mr. Right years ago and they all turned out to be Mr. Wrong. They are all either separated, divorced or into their second or third marriage by now. What is going on with my generation? I think we are changing the definition of “normal.”
With Christmas just a month away, I decided to look at all my financial information and give myself a financial checkup before I go shopping and take a chance on overspending. Last year, my brother had just gotten married and he went completely overboard on Christmas gifts for everyone. Then in January he realized his mistake and by February he was looking for a Debt Relief program to keep himself and his new wife out of big trouble.
I don’t know if the big recession that we are in had anything to do with my brother’s problems last year, but this year I have heard of several people who needed help with counseling and Debt Settlement. Sometimes bad things happen to good people, and they get stuck in a financial crisis. After all, most modern American families are just a couple of missed paychecks away from losing their homes and all their belongings. Foreclosures have been happening all over the country at record high rates for over two years now. This is starting to get very scary!
Debt Negotiation is one way to get out of a financial crisis and work on a fresh start. I know my brother had his wake up call last year and has been working hard to fix his problems. Of course, the family was not going to let him fail. But he needed to learn his lesson.
When I was younger, there was no such thing as a DARE program that came into our schools to try to teach kids the dangers of substance abuse. But I do recall taking Health in junior high school, where we were shown movies about the dangers and treatments for substance abuse. I can remember one of the movies gave a lot of teen addiction info and talked about how there was a growing need for teen drug rehab and teen alcohol rehab.
I think that one of the things to blame for the increased need for teen drug treatment programs is because in today’s economic environment, in the vast majority of cases both parents in a household have to work in order to survive. And that leaves the kids to their own devices. The parents can afford to get sitters, or put their kids in after school programs that will keep the kids supervised, happy and safe, so we have a lot of latch-key children out there. And schools have cut back on their late-bus services, so that makes it even more difficult.
I think it is especially vital for a parent to be home with the kids when the kids reach their teen years. That is the time when they get into the most mischief.
Yesterday I was at a business meeting at work, and a few of the women at the meeting started to complain that they wanted a drink from the water cooler but that there were no cups. My goodness, people are so helpless sometimes! I remembered learning (as a girl scout) how to make a paper cup from a regular piece of paper. So I took a couple of sheets of paper and folded them up into cups and gave them to the women. They were shocked and asked me to show them how I did it! So I showed them, and they were amazed at how simple a process it is. I thought I’d show you a youtube video that I just found that shows you the same method – that way YOU can make your own cups if you need to. This is a skill I think everyone should have!
At the grocery store tonight I bumped into someone who I was delighted to see – one of my college professors! I have not seen her in over 4 years and to see her in the bakery department was a bigger treat than all the cheesecake in the store!
She was telling me about looking for a new faculty position at a different school. She reads The Chronicle online and has been researching some of the open positions posted there.
She told me she was even considering going back to school herself and getting her Masters degree. It’s not that hard to do while working when you can take the right courses at Walden University and do the coursework at night.
Everyone should take their education very seriously. Not only is a higher Education a person’s best asset for their career advancement, but it is available to all and has demonstrated financial value for future earnings.