Sallie Mae

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You have to know where I am going with this topic if it is dedicated to my baby momma Sallie Mae. The struggle is so real when Sallie Mae is involved in your life. She reminds you every day that she will be apart of your life until your child (degree) is completely paid for. If you don’t have a child or any other bills to pay, paying her will feel like all of this wrapped up in one.  Even if you don’t have a job those payments better not stop or you will receive a nice little call from a random ass number saying “Hey Kevin Pierre, we didn’t receive our monthly child support payment.” Those calls are dreadful and are depressing.

The most important decisions in your life are made when you have to pay Sallie Mae.  You will be sitting on the toilet and literally think, “ Should I pay my phone bill first or should I pay Sallie Mae.” This will be one of the hardest decisions of your life because if your phone get cut off you can’t talk to people but if you don’t pay Sallie Mae SHE WILL stalk you.  If Sallie Mae stalks you this will cause all sorts of problems. The most common questions you ask yourself when you have child support payments to make to Sallie Mae are below.

“Am I going to eat today?”

“Should I become a stripper?”

“Do I really want to buy gummy bears today?”

“Can I give this degree back?”

“Where is Waldo?”

“What should my stripper name be?”

These are all valid questions that may need to be answered but what you should do is just try to pay Sallie Mae. If you don’t have to pay Sallie Mae you won’t ever have to know this struggle. She will contact you 6 months to a year after you graduate and hound you until you start making payments. It’s better to plan accordingly for it her so you can be ahead of the game. Keep your head up and don’t let Sallie Mae catch you with your pants down. You just have to know how to play the game better.

Trip Tripping

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Hello readers, as it is still January you should be planning your trips for the year. I think its great to plan trips especially if you plan trips with great people. When it comes to planning trips with people you always got to have some ground rules with some people. You can’t really go on vacation with people you don’t trust or you don’t like. It just makes things awkward. Maybe if you don’t like one person on the trip and are cool with the other person you can keep it cordial. Still that is a bit of a risk. You don’t want to be miserably on vacation when you are supposed to be enjoying yourself.

            Plan at least 5 different destinations (minimum) you want to go on for the year. No matter what they are, just plan 5 and if you make 2 of them you are still fine. The 5 destinations you want are locations where you will have the most fun and forget all of your troubles. You also definitely want some international trips where you have to use your passport. If you are not actively using your passport you are really missing out.

            The last part is deciding who you will go on these trips with. Honestly this is the hardest part because you can’t trust everyone when it comes to vacation time. You will definitely know who your friends are when you are on vacation. Money is always an issue especially if someone doesn’t have any but they want to go. You don’t want to go on vacation with someone that doesn’t have money. If you have to pay their entire way, then that is a problem. You don’t want this type of person with you. My friends and I have a system when it comes to stuff whether it be plane tickets, liquor, parties, food, etc. We all got each other and pay each other back no matter what. We don’t hound each other for money we have a system. If someone says they got the flight, the other person pays for the hotel. If something cost more then the other additional funds get transferred to the person or that money goes into buying the needed items when we land (food and/or liquor).  You will learn these lessons when you are traveling with the wrong people. When you travel with the wrong people you will know exactly the write people to travel with.

All in all, live your life and travel as much as possible. Try new things and experience the world before you can’t. You are the only one holding yourself back from trying new things. Be great, plan accordingly and live your life.

My 5 trips from last year are Miami, Las Vegas, Toronto, Las Vegas (Again) and Haiti. Each adventure has its own story that we will save for another time.

"The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page"

The Naturalist (Part 1)

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I just want to give a quick shout out to those individuals who go natural and get a lot of shit for it. People hate change and when you change their view of you they will continue to hate you. From the outside looking in I feel that I have somewhat experienced this when my sister first started. My sister has been growing her hair for over 10 years now and loves it. When first starting something you always hear from irrelevant people and there annoying opinions.

So take a trip back to high school, 10^th grade where this story begins. My sister decided to cut her hair not because she was following a trend, just because she had bad edges and her hair was falling out. She wanted to start fresh and see where it could take her. She literally started with a baldy and when she came to school the next day it all came in at once. The critics, opinions, rumors and just the people who weren’t use to change. My sister and I look a like a little bit but when she did that we literally looked like twins. The worst thing is that people look at you different when it comes to change. You are now considered ugly and not a good person at all for changing people’s view of you.  You are not going to talk about my sister in front of me, only I can do that. Through all the criticism she grew from it and continued being her.  The same people that talked bad about her are the same people who also became natural. Let me sip my tea though.

I think my love for people with natural hair has come from my sister and her journey. The journey was a struggle and now 10 years later she is still on it. Nothing ever comes easy but the journey to become natural and stay natural isn’t for everyone. Don’t get me wrong I don’t have any issues with individuals with un-natural hair; I am just giving those with natural hair a quick shout out. The hair discussion is a completely different topic that we won’t get into. No matter your hair situation and no matter what people say, as long as you continue to be you that is all that matters.

“If someone is strong enough to bring you down, show them you’re strong enough to get back up”

Life After College (Part 2)

Back to this life after college mess but lets discuss life after Grad/Law/Med School. Now that you are somewhat out of your undergraduate mentality (Click here for Part 1) and are aware that a bachelor’s degree means nothing, say hello to your new life. This new life consists of darkness, hating everyone, more debt and depression. Some people take a break right after undergrad to get there work experience and then pursue their next endeavor. While others go straight into it right after graduating from undergrad. No matter the route you go the hardest part to continuing your education is the initial application. This is not up for debate at all as some schools require you to have multiple prerequisites before they even accept you. Then even after you apply, they still might not accept you because you aren’t in the top 50 applicants or you don’t meet their idle person. Then you are stalking people to give you recommendations or finding a scholarship program to pay for your tuition, no matter what it is, this first step is the most stressful part.

Now that you have finally been accepted your life is somewhat over. Depending if you go full time or part time, no matter what your life is still over. Your time is mostly occupied with studying and making it through your classes. You have to change the bad study habits that you had in undergrad and make this paper (money). A lot of sacrifices have to be made to continue your education sometimes. You can’t focus on to many things at one time because this will feel like a job. Having to write 15-30 page papers on bullshit that you barely even know. That means most of your time is occupied by research. You know your professor might not read it but you don’t want to test if they won’t. So you spend your weekends (and most of your free time) researching and studying more stuff then you even need to, just so you cover everything. You lose track of days, you don’t remember what sleep is and what exactly are friends? When break finally hits you cherish it with everything in your being. Even though you still have something due when you get back from break. The reality of it all is that this second stage can either make you or break you. Some people give up while others continue right to the finish line.

No matter the route you go it still comes down to if you can find a career. For those in the medical field you have a couple more years of struggle till you will be getting paid like crazy but it will be worth it. For others now you might get to a place where you provide your resume and they say, “ You are over qualified for the position.” Nine times out of ten they just don’t want to pay you what you are worth. They would rather pay 3 people (at a lower rate) to do the job that you could possibly do by yourself. Now it’s all about the hustle and how well you can sell yourself to these hiring managers. Life during college and life after is a struggle, but no matter what you are going through it will always be worth it in the end.

“You have to struggle no matter where you are to get to where you’re going”

Things You Should Work On In 2015

New year new me? New year, same me with upgrades. I am still Kevin just with bigger goals. I hate every year people say “new year, new me”. Hate it with everything in my being. You are still the same person you where last year but just a better version. No matter what your goal should be, you should try and be a better version of the person you where yesterday.  

Growth

Grow as an individual; don’t let anyone try to mold you as a person. We are always growing and changing. You always want to do things that make you a better person for tomorrow. Leave the past in the past and continue to move forward with life. Nothing ever happens moving backwards.

Never Regret

Things are always done and said but it is up to us to not regret our decisions. These decisions define our future. We may burn a couple bridges along the way but that is all apart of life. Life is way to short to regret the decisions you’ve made and the adventures you went on. Just be great and continue doing you.

Say What You Mean

We always seem to bite our tongue in the hope of playing nice with peoples feelings, just stop. Be you and be as real as possible. Sometimes not saying what you mean hurts you more then it hurts the other person. Grow up and just say what you mean whether it be positive or negative. You will feel better once you get it off your chest.

Explore

Explore the world; don’t just stay in your comfort zone. Sometimes all you need is maybe 1 or 2 people willing to explore with you. Just book a flight and enjoy what the world has to offer. I always hear people complain that they don’t have enough time but the real issue is that you are afraid of taking a risk. Just take a weekend gateway and explore. Live the life you where meant to live and get out of your comfort zone.

“Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future”