More than half of my monthly income goes to my car because I'm in school and there is no public transport to my job or school. I work 30 hours which is about as much as I can manage without it eating into class time. Luckily I found a sweet roommate so I'm only out $600 bucks for rent. Yet for my vehicle I'm out $200 a month for payments, $155 for insurance, $80+ for gas, and additionally its a hassle to keep up with; I've had to pay ~$300 a month in parts to keep up with the damn thing and do the repairs myself. Now I have a airbag light on my dashboard that wont go away because of a faulty srs system and I can't get it replaced without paying $500 to a mechanic I just don't have anymore because I maxed my credit cards. yet because of this I can't get it inspected in time to renew my registration so I'm basically asking for a ticket driving to work.
I feel so screwed currently because I have no idea how people make it through school without making $2500+ a month. I'm taking an unpaid internship for my career in the spring yet I can't afford to take the time off of work yet it must be done! I can take out student loans but it seems that all I can get are ones that cover the rest of my tuition. I swear people acted like I'd have my entire tuition and room paid for by simply applying everywhere I could. I did that and $1500 of my tuition is covered because I was essentially just lucky and already had family friends. Tuition is $7500 so it doesn't cover much at all; I feel like I was pressured to attend a university with a nicer name when its really not my passion to attend here. I can't make the friends or study groups I would like because I'm doing freelance or fast food. Trying to switch out to being a waiter at a restaurant closer to me so I can just sell my car for $5k and have leeway for my internship. but I wouldn't be able to get to the city to attend my internship.
I feel like everything is a system meant to exploit me and I haven't even stepped into the rat race, I'm literally working the most meager jobs and my only bit of relief is when I finish a freelance project and I get a few hundred bucks for building out a nice system. I have skills, yet I feel they will never be compensated or utilized. What are people supposed to do when you just can't afford what people expect from you? I tell my parents that both me and my academics are suffering because I can't focus yet because they went through it I can to. The thing is my father was making $30 bucks an hour in the 90s while I make $10.50 and its a pretty good starting salary because its better than what a job working at my uni would offer. Sometimes it feels like my motivation to continue school is just declining because it costs way too much for how much additional stress you go through for 2 more years.