On September 14th, 1986, my dad dropped me off at boarding school and gave me a five dollar bill. I never heard from him again. He never paid my tuition bill. So from the age of 14, I took every job I could get and worked my way through.
At $4 an hour, I didn’t even come close to paying off my entire bill, but the school let me stick around because I was a model student in and out of the classroom.
We get to graduation. I opened my little diploma thing expecting to see a bill in five figures. Instead there was a note.
“Congratulations on your graduation. A group of us who believe in you and love you have taken care of your bill. We are proud to present you with your diploma.”
I later found out that one of my friend’s dad, a fairly well off dentist, went fund raising among his golf buddies because he was having none of my entering life at eighteen under crushing debt.