Grace Period is over.
For those who don’t know, either because you paid for your entire education or your parents handle all your money, your Grace Period is a euphemism for: YOU HAVE 6 MONTHS TO FIND A JOB. During this 6-month time period, you are expected to find a stable income, which will hereafter allow you to pay off monthly student loans.
Truthfully, Grace Period was over on November 15th of 2010. However, I write this post now because Sallie Mae didn’t start withdrawing from my bank account until this month.
*sigh*
I vowed to myself that I would pay off my student loans without my parents help. Thus far I was able to pay December. Substitute teaching has saved me enough to pay January. But after?
I am in a dilemma between what I want to do, versus making enough money to live a lifestyle without debt.
As an unpaid Production Assistant at the Globe, this internship only reinstates that I am meant to be in the theatre. It is the one location where I have never gotten tired of being indoors all day. Though I am making coffee, photocopying scripts, and lifting props, I know it means something when I can say I love what I'm doing.
Unfortunately, reality tells me theatre will not provide enough to pay a year’s worth of tuition over 25 years, plus an apartment, plus a car, plus living expenses and whatever else I'll need.
I am worried, wanting to perform and live and breathe theater, but afraid I cannot make enough in this field to execute my life the way I want and to pay off my dues.
It is this common debate between passion and practicality. We all struggle with this, do we not?
