Tessie D

I graduate next month.

I should’ve sent out my college applications already, but I haven’t. 

I’ve been thinking, and I’m just going to apply to the school in town. Everyone at work goes there, and they like it. Besides, it’d be silly to think that I’d be able to go far away to college somewhere. We can barely afford groceries and electricity in the same month. How could I afford to move away from home? Paying for college will be hard enough as it is, but to also have to pay to live somewhere else would be impossible. 

Grandaddy Bud left me and Annie some money for college in a savings account, but Momma and Daddy used it to buy the trailer house and the farm. I don’t really blame them for it. We had to have somewhere to live. Momma probably also knew that if Daddy wasn’t going to work, at least owning a house and some land meant that we’d always at least have a place to sleep and a roof over our heads. It was probably the smartest, safest choice she could’ve made As much as I hate not being able to go away to college like I’d always wanted to, I’d have probably made the same decision.

Maybe somewhere might’ve offered me some scholarships or something that I could’ve applied for… if I could’ve afforded the application costs. Or, the SAT. The test isn’t cheap, and if I wanted to get a good score, I needed to take it more than once. All that testing costs money. Money we didn’t have. 

Right now, I’m going to focus on the positive: I have the next two nights off from work, I gave Momma some money from Monday and Tuesday nights’ tips, and I still have some stashed away in my drawer. I’m off for the next two nights.

Christi, Pamela, and Monica came into the restaurant for dinner, and I got to wait on them. We decided to hang out tonight and study for our Pre-Cal test tomorrow (I’m so behind on homework — my grades aren’t bad, but they aren’t great). I think we might also go to the JV football game on Thursday night.