I also lived on mac & cheese, spaghetti, and other foods that would last two days such as Hamburger helper meals.

8yrs college = 8 yrs student = always going the cheap way, trying to save.

My fellow classmates and I would go to Del Taco for the Tuesday nite special...3 tacos for 99 cents.

On Sundays, it was McD's 39 cent cheeseburger, and Wednesdays were McD's 29 cent hamburgers...something like that.

What else did we do? Oh, yes....we'd go as a group and stock up food from Costco, splitting the cost on foods such as family size trays of lasagna. We'd sometimes run there during lunch just for their delicious and large serving hotdogs & a drink, all for $1.50.

We ordered the Sunday paper and fought for the coupons so we could get that double-coupon saving.

We never had matching furniture, only bits and pieces of what we could find or collect.

Now, it's payback time. I'm nearing 30 and I shouldn't have to continue living like a college student. I have much higher expectations for myself these days that have nothing to do with other people.

My friends come from all sorts of backgrounds, rich, poor, the middle-class. I respect them all. I don't degrade them or put them down if they don't make much. It's all how they treat others and I know plenty of wonderful folks who don't have much. In fact, the nicer ones are usually the ones who have less.

The people I disrespect are the ones who snob, the ones who are racially prejudice in a malicious way, the ones who are flakey, they ones who lie, the ones who backstab. And I'm not going to say I'm none of those things, but I try not to be. Sure, sometimes, something might come out of my mouth that might offend someone, but I really don't mean any harm by it.

We can't always be perfect and be expected to be a certain way. I have judgements, I have opinions, I feel anger, I feel hurt, I feel pain, I feel all these things because I have feelings, too, just like everyone else. I'm not always a good person, but for the most part I am. I can be vindictive, as well...it just all depends on what buttons you want to push and what mood I'm in.

All in all, I think I am a pretty fair person. And whatever I write here is how I feel. These are my thoughts and what goes on in my head. They belong to me. I don't expect anyone to read it. It's a place I just feel comfortable expressing my true self....a very true self because I open up so much in here. In real life, you wouldn't hear me telling people as much as I do here.

One thing here is to keep an open mind and try to understand where each individual is coming from, what their background is and to be able to try and understand that before making assumptions or judgments.

Lastly, yes, I know I don't need to apologize or explain myself, but I felt like it. Things of this nature bother me and I need to get it taken care of.