The current update. . .
As a note, this is what has been taking up all of my time. This is my reason for not being on the RPGs, writing any new fanfics (and I now have plenty of ideas...two of them have book potential...but not enough time to get started), or talking to anyone via Skype.
First, I would like to apologize to you all. For those who have had me snap at them in the forums, "ignore" them for some time, or just never getting around to responding, I am sorry.
Now onto the story...
A few weeks ago, I recieved an email from the international office here at my university. They claimed that they did not know how my courses were to correspond with my major, and did not know how to use them to assist with my graduation. So, I spoke with my department chair (the man who runs the whole English department, who helped get me to Japan in the first place) and he sent an email in return, and both sides said that everything was taken care of. . .
And then it went downhill.
My mother recieved a letter from my university almost a week later. A letter that contained a bill for over six thousand U.S. Dollars. this did not make sense to me, since the government and my personal loans should have paid for everything, not leave me with a bill that is equal to the tuition for the semester.
I spoke to a few employees in the offices, and discovered the problem: the courses from my year in Japan did not carry over, and each course was considered "incomplete." This essentially means that an entire year of courses was not counted for me at all. Until this mishap is corrected, I do not recieve any financial assistance from the government, nor do I receive any of my loans from the government either.
So, I go to the offices once again, and begin to cause problems for them until the began to fix things. They claimed that they sent everything to another office, which claimed they sent it to another office, which claimed. . .
You get the picture.
So, after running around the university, to three seperate buildings and five offices later, I finally received a straight answer (almost): my information became lost in one of the offices, and the employees there had to wait until their supervisor got back to them.
. . .
Its a miracle I didn't murder somebody up to this point. But it gets even better.
I discovered that because of my job before I left (and the income from that), the lack of a job during my year abroad, my late paperwork because of my year abroad, my sister no longer being in school, my brother and his job(s?), my sister and her nursing job, and the raise that my mother received at her job, I had another one thousand five hundred dollars revoked from my financial assistance. This is due to the government believing that the family made too much money this year. Which therefore means that after my other aid finally does clear (whenever it clears. . .), I will still owe the school money that I do not have.
Why?
They are asking for somewhere between six hundred and seven hundred USDs. My mother lost her job before I returned from Japan, and therefore cannot assist me. My brother does not have much money of his own since he lost one of his jobs, and is preparing to go to school for next spring (maybe even next fall). My sister lost her job and is preparing to move out, which is taxing my mother very greatly bother physically and mentally (and of course, costing her a great deal of money to help her in the process). I am working the only job I am able/allowed to work, which is just like any other job for those of us without a college degree or the time needed for a "real" job: a dead end desk job at the library, making minimum wage.
Therefore, I cannot receive assistance from home. My own job would take me nearly 14 weeks of working, without spending ANY money at all, in order to pay for one semester (which is less than 4 months long, with holidays). Additionally, because of my lack of a job during the past year, I cannot take another loan to pay for school.
. . .
I have spent days asking around with professors, advisors, department chairs, and I have been working my way up the ladder, and all are saying the same thing:
"You're screwed."
I basically need to find some way to earn this money within the next two weeks. If I do not, I will not be allowed to register for my classes for the next semester. Without registration, I am not longer a student. If I am not longer a student, I technically "dropped out" of school, which therefore means that I need to start paying for my student loans almost immediately. Meaning the current fifteen-thousand dollar debt will land upon my unemployed head.
Great. . .
As you can see, I have been greatly stressed by this, and this doesn't include my classes! The workload I have makes me start at 7am (and usually, I am awake and doing something around 6am), and I usually do not return to my room to "relax" (aka: sit down, do more homework, and then sleep) until almost midnight. I may only do that twice a week (on Fridays, I just say screw it and take the night off), but my two "days off" are spent either here at the library, working, or spent tutoring foreign students, or just spent doing my homework, which usually consists of reading for my speech course, writing speeches, writing papers, reading the bible, reading Greek Mythology, reading classic British Literature, reading classic American Literature, reading books about computer programming, and writing programs for said course. This also doesn't include my "special" assignments, like my journal for Core Texts, my term papers, my portfolios, my exams, my twice a week quizzes, or any of the other aspects of my life. . .
So yes...I have been busy.
I apologize for ignoring you all, but. . .
At this moment, I am not even sure if I will be allowed to attend school any longer.
Wish me luck . . .