COUNTERPOINT: It could be a lot worse

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When I walk into my chilly bedroom in a poorly heated and barely insulated house, I have every reason to feel like an impoverished college student.

Sweeping, generalized understatement: things are not great right now for the average American college student.

Our constantly compounding burdens of debt, the textbook racket and job market waiting for us with shrugged shoulders suggest now is not the ideal time to attend an institute of higher education.

Still, such complaints about our lean times are myopic. It takes a lot of arrogance to act like being relatively poor while attending college is some kind of death sentence. Although I might live in a house that should have been demolished in the early 1970s, in the grand scheme of things, I am doing incredibly well.

It is entirely legitimate to complain about the widening wealth disparity created by tax policy or the sorry state of education in America, but it’s ignorant and selfish to think students are suffering more than anyone else. On a local, national and international level, American college students are riding out the global financial crisis better than most.

I’m not just housed and fed, I still get to have a good time, too. Despite a busy schedule, I still have the time to enjoy myself as only a college student can.

Last weekend, I watched a former co-worker eat a raw onion in my kitchen in an attempt to impress some ladies. He failed spectacularly, but we all had a great time watching.

I have consumed a variety of gourmet cheeses, gone on amazing vacations and spent nights in a blanket fort in my time at CMU; this might not be the golden age of American college life, but it’s still a pretty excellent time to be young and independent.

Student loan refund checks are a less-than-ideal way to finance our daily needs and wants, but at a fixed interest rate they make much more sense than the credit cards Americans who aren’t in school use to pay for essentials.

Laptops and grocery bills are a much smaller burden at seven percent than 30. And let’s be honest, a lot of the things we buy and do on a daily basis are unbelievable luxuries not only for most people in the world but for many people in Isabella County.

When everything is said and done, whatever shape the economy is in, we will have a much better shot at those who didn’t have the opportunity to attend college. That’s right — I’m an English major and confident I’ll find work when I’m out of school, something I would have a hard time believing if I was 23 and holding onto a GED.

At the end of the day, try to remember we are all living lifestyles a lot closer to Ozzie Osbourne’s than Oscar the Grouch’s.