FAFSA

When I say it aloud, it reminds me of that damned AFLAC duck.

Or possibly of drunken gibbering.


It’s been quite some time since I’ve said FAFSA aloud. Since about 1983, actually. And it wasn’t drunken gibbering then, either. No indeedy.

As the mother of a high school senior, I am working on trying to help find some money to send her to college. ‘Cause I’ll do ANYthing to get her outta my house…ba dum pah!

As it stands, she plans to live with H and I full time while she attends River City University. So, we’ll be doing what we can to help her out with some expenses, but tuition and books won’t be a possibility.

FAFSA is the Free Application for Financial Student Aid. If you want to go to school in the U.S., and you need a grant, or a loan, or a scholarship to do so (or your kids do), this is the first stop in that process. And the first step in that process is doing your income taxes. The money (for grants) is based on need (we certainly have that) and is first come, first served. So, of course, it's helpful to get as close to the front of that line as you can get.

Consequently, I filed my taxes last week. And I worked on her FAFSA today, but I’m waiting for one piece back to be able to finish it. It should be here by the weekend. When I get that, I’ll sit [Kid1] down (she should be back from her dad’s by then) and we’ll go through it together. (We've already done her college application.) One more thing I can teach her. There won’t be many more of those before she flitters away from me.

I’ve been looking for scholarship opportunities for her as well, but middle class white chicks can’t get any more of a break than they could nearly 25 years ago! Okay, if she was into sports or had much better grades maybe. But we’re still working on leads.

The upside is that I've gotten my taxes done (for whatever reason). One yucky job I can mark off my list. (I still need to clean out the fridge, though.)

Hard to believe that next year, I’ll be the mother of a college freshman. (Heh. Get this.) And a second grader (who, by the way, is currently hawking cookies for her Brownie troop).

Ain’t life a kick, sometimes?