I feel like dying, can anyone help?

Question

Seriously, I am VERY depressed now. The reason is: I dont think I will be able to go to community college this year.

You see, I just graduated high school in june, and i have worked hard in my school life. But because I do not have a car, I will not be able to go to community college.

The college has a bus system but its only around the area and i live like 40 minutes away. The only way i could get there is to walk for an hour to get to the stop, get picked up by a bus that takes me to bart and wait there for 10 minutes to get onto another bus that will take me to a stop where i walk to the campus. it would take like 2 hours to get there and i would have to wake up so early and my class schedule would be different everyday. it would be way too stressful, dont have a carpool but even if i did, it would be too hard with having different class schedules.

I cannot afford a car at the time and my mom cant either because she is a single mom w/ no child support. the work money i have saved isnt enough because for this past year i have been using almost all my paycheck to help mom with bills/rent/food/gas. she got laid off.

i wanna go to college because i wanna get out of community college within 2 years and transfer to an art college. and I NEED to make friends. this summer has been so lonely and empty. my sleep schedule got off whack and i didnt make any friends at my high school because most of the kids were really s****. and just wanted to party, it was dumb i didnt connect with anyone

college starts in like 10 days. no car. i have contacted churches about need of a donated car or financial help but no one has gotten back to me

im really worried about my future.

i was thinking my backup plan is to get a new job at borders, working full time, and save up for a car, new school clothes, books/computer memory, and some extra things to enjoy myself. is this a goodback up plan and will i make friends?

Answer 1

Are you from the Oakland area?!  My aunt is an artist there...that's so cool!

I thought your idea about working at Border's was great...you'll probably meet some cool people right at your job...and if you don't like it, you can try somewhere else.

The great thing to about wanting to go into art is that is something you can enjoy and work on even before you've saved up so you can go to school.

Did you apply for loans and scholarships this year?  Next Fall just fill out the FAFSA and you will qualify for some sort of financial help.  And loan money doesn't just cover classes, but depending on how much you're awarded, you can also use it to buy a cheap used car.

It's good that you're helping your mom...You will need to make sure you can use your money mostly on you, though, so you can save up for what you need to go to school...

You said you'd contacted some churches about help.  That was a good place to try...maybe they're just financially strapped.  My Aunt goes to Berkley First Presbyterian and likes it a lot.  It seems to be a popular place for folks our age, if you're interested in other ways of meeting people.  One of the wonderful things about attending a church is that life can be so ISOLATING!!!  At my Aunt's church, anyhow, there were a lot of friendly people, and if you needed to you could set up an appt. with someone just to talk and de-stress.