Having finished two years of college, I’ve come to a somewhat shocking conclusion: College is much more fun when you don’t have a lot of money. Perhaps many of you would disagree, citing the fact that you can’t take as many trips or go out and do as much when you are low on funds, which is true. That can certainly suck, and I’d be lying if I said that I don’t sometimes wish I could do more of those things. But in the grand scheme of things, what fun is college if you can’t joke about how much Ramen you eat and drink a ‘glass’ of milk out of a bowl? College is a crazy time, and part of what makes it so crazy and exciting is finding ways to make things work with what little funds you have. It not only makes things more fun, but also provides an extra way for you to connect with the people around you who experience the same thing. We college students don’t have it all figured out, and sometimes that’s what makes life so great.
Throughout my life, I find myself in a lot of situations where I lack the funds and resources that it would typically take to accomplish a certain task. I grew up in a family that was never loaded, went to a tiny Christian school that seemed to run on technology from the 80s, and now attend/pay for college while working a minimum wage job. Even this summer, I have taken an internship away from home with a Christian non-profit organization. Not the “NFL” kind of non-profit, but actual non-profit. So here I am again, finding myself living on a tight budget and just trying to find ways to make things work.
It’s an odd thing. According to our culture, having less is worse. So how can I possibly be saying that, in my experience, less has been better? I think it ultimately comes down to that old adage about finding your band of brothers. A band of brothers is not just any old group of friends. Rather, it is a community of people who work, live, and sweat together. Most importantly, these people bleed and suffer together. Hardship breeds the deepest kinds of bonds. There is something unique about a group of people coming together in order to work towards one common goal. It may even be a simple goal, but it is one that would not have been possible without each and every person contributing what they had to give.
“If one member suffers, all suffer together…” – 1 Cor. 12:26
“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” – Romans 5:3-5
“If it wasn’t for each other, I’m sure a lot of us would have gone crazy. That’s where the cohesion comes in. We were brothers.” – Clancy Lyall
Community that’s birthed out of hardship also breeds a new sense of creativity and ingenuity. Here are the kinds of things you do when you don’t have the proper money and resources: rely on volunteers/donations, make toast on the stove, use normal bread instead of hot dog buns, sit in a blow-up couch, buy beef jerky and potato chips as a steak and potato dinner, play white elephant with only gag gifts…and the list could go on. Life without money really isn’t that bad. It’s all about what you make of it. More so, it makes something of you. You’re forced to find new ways to do things with the people you love, and oftentimes these things are so dumb you can’t help but laugh.
Maybe, not having money really is better. College has certainly been a lot more… interesting… and yes, even fun, without money. What fun would college be if we were all rolling in cash? My family has had more fun laughing about our lack of money than I think we ever would simply having millions of dollars. Money might be able to change circumstances, but laughter can fix much deeper wounds. And when we can learn to take life’s hardships with a smile, you’ll realize that not having money isn’t so bad after all.
We don’t need to have it all. We just need to have enough. And the rest, well, we can just laugh it off.
“Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: Remove me falsehood and lying, give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, ‘Who is the Lord’ or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.” – Proverbs 30:7-9
Annie Spratt