"Why don't you apply for a student loan?"
I froze.
I clearly remembered that just yesterday, she'd bought my brother a pair of sneakers that cost a thousand dollars.
And today—
She was telling me to take out loans for school.
——
The image of those brand-new sneakers burned in my mind, and I couldn't hold it in anymore.
So I didn't.
I turned on my mother and let her have it.
"You had money to buy him thousand-dollar sneakers, but you want me to take out loans for college?"
"Have you even thought about how much I'd owe after four years? After tuition, have you considered whether what's left would even be enough for me to live on?"
I was so angry I paced circles around the living room.
Mom shot back, indignant:
"I did the math. If you're careful with your spending, it's enough."
A student loan of twenty thousand a year. Four years meant eighty thousand. After tuition, that left roughly a thousand a month for everything else.
If nothing unexpected happened, and I pinched every penny, sure. Technically enough.
But that wasn't how it worked. It meant the second I graduated, I'd be eighty thousand dollars in debt. And student loans accrued interest after graduation.