Why UC’s Affordability Matters to Me

This will be a bit different from the usual blogs I write about. Not too long ago, I went on this sort of “testimony” to a friend about what I’ve been through and how it led me to Cumberlands. Someone told me my story is important to tell. I contemplated it for weeks because, honestly, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to tell my story. But, after much debating, I think it’s pretty obvious what I ended up choosing. The person who encouraged me to make this blog was right; my story is important to tell because I’m not alone in the life I’ve lived, and I want this to bring solace to others who can understand me and to those who can even relate to me. So, here goes. Here is my story of coming to Cumberlands.

I don’t know where to start, so I guess I’ll just start at the beginning. Not all the way at the beginning, but where my college journey began (as a high school senior). The family I came from didn’t start out financially well. My mom was a single mom providing for my little sister and me, so money was tight. So, my first criteria for colleges were that they had to be affordable. I couldn’t ask my mom to pay for a super-expensive college when she was already doing her best; that felt selfish and insensitive. I decided that I had to do this on my own, that I could do this on my own.

I knew Cumberlands was affordable, but I would still have to take on student debt if I attended there (at the time, the Cumberlands Commitment Program didn’t exist). Even though the college was affordable, four years of any amount of student debt added together is still painful to think about. So, I considered alternatives. Tennessee has a program called “Tennessee Promise” that allows students to receive two free years of school so long as they keep an average GPA and complete eight hours of community service every semester. That sounded like the most affordable option, so I chose this community college nearby that I thought would be a good education. The first semester went well. I was a full-time student and minimum-wage worker, which was very hard, but I was making it.

It wasn’t until I started seeing all my old classmates who had gone to big, expensive colleges that I started to change, not for the better. They were all seemingly enjoying themselves. From what I could tell, they were just attending classes, getting to live away from home, and having all this free time. It didn’t appear that they had jobs like I did. The comparison really kicked in because I felt stuck at home, working a minimum wage job, attending a school that was not even in my top five choices for what college I had once dreamed of attending. My life was nowhere near a reflection of what I had wanted for myself when I began dreaming of college life during my senior year. I’ll admit it, I got bitter. I got really bitter. To this day, I am not proud of how bitter I let myself get. I felt trapped, like my life was destined for failure because I had thought of nothing else besides cost when making one of the most significant decisions of my life. I hadn’t thought about what I wanted until it was too late. I felt that way for a while before I finally made a change for myself. 

I don’t remember what specifically happened that caused the change. Maybe one day, I just woke up and decided I didn’t want to feel like that anymore. However, I vividly remember the day I applied to transfer to Cumberlands. I was going to transfer a semester early because I was so tired of being afraid of my dreams just because I felt like I couldn’t afford to chase them. Of course, I didn’t want to go all out and transfer to a school I obviously couldn’t afford. Cumberlands, however, had implemented something called the Cumberlands Commitment, which promised that no student would pay more than $4,000 per year to attend Cumberlands. I also discovered that work-study opportunities existed there that could help reduce my out-of-pocket costs even further. This helped with my decision of which school to transfer to. 

Now, fast forward to the present day. I now obviously attend Cumberlands and work here at the school (mainly writing blogs) to pay for my tuition every semester. I’m still a busy person with little free time, and it gets a little tricky sometimes. But right now, I no longer feel like my future is limited. In fact, I feel like I can make a promising future for myself. The first important step I took was to let go of all that bitterness and hate I held for so long. I couldn’t do so by myself; I credit my mom and two older sisters for giving me great advice. I like where I am right now. Yes, it felt like forever just getting to this point, but it was worth it. I learned a lot on the way, like how to not let financial problems keep you from chasing your dreams. If you are going through the same thing I was not long ago, consider University of the Cumberlands. I feel like I’ve become a better person ever since coming here, and I’ve made a lot of progress in where I want to go in life.