Can I keep it?

Last summer I was trying to ensure that I had enough loan capacity to make it to my graduation date, I even took a half quarter off to ensure that the financial aid office could do the math with the academic advisors and verify. After a week I was told that ‘yes, you will definitely make it’.

They were either a) wrong, b) lying, or c) didn’t do the work.

On Thursday, I was informed that the funds would be not nearly enough to graduate. Four classes from graduating, and they decide they now require an extra several thousand dollars to make it to my graduation day.

So there is the rock, now on to the hard place.

I have a decent and responsible budget set in my house. I can buy healthy food and drink the occasional adult beverage if I so choose. I am changing my personal vehicle to one that gets twice the gas milage, and costs half of the insurance. I have budgeted for my impending student loan payments.

It’s not enough to absorb what they want for these last four classes. Had I known a year ago, I could have prepared. The situation is very much like the surprise balloon payment or adjustable rate mortgage ballooning payments by 3000%; but instead of trying to repo my home, they are trying to repossess my professional future. I have a lot of not nice names for it, but that isn’t the point. I need to make this money happen. If nothing else, I don’t want to give the bastards the satisfaction of four grueling years of work for nothing. I should have heeded the warning bells when I saw the graduation rate was in the middle percentile. I didn’t and now my future is being held ransom by a greedy institution with no honor or commitment to its students’ success.

So, here is where you come in. I am not going to ask you for donations. I understand that people are willing to help their fellow man and I think it is one of the highest honors to be a recipient of such help; I can give you something of value for that money. I am asking to conduct commerce with *you,* dear reader. For a small investment, I can show you how I see the world through my eyes.

Once a week, I will post to my tumblr (at http://kuhfeldt.tumblr.com ) five images and five paypal links. These images will be the week’s 8X10 photographs that are available for a limited time. I will put out a notification like this one that they are available and ready to order. The price for the images will be seven dollars. This includes the cost of the print, postage, handling, and mailer. Shortly after your order and payment is received, your order will be mailed by first class USPS mail and you should receive your order fairly quickly. The next week will bring new images at seven dollars, and the previous week’s will be nine dollars and if there are any, the previous week’s images before that will be eleven. After the images have been available for three weeks, I will delete the 8×10 scaled image file and *never* again offer it in 8×10 or larger size.