Financial (and Spiritual) Aid

Allow me to tell you a story about something that happened a couple of weeks ago.

So, I'm kind of an idiot. Not sure if you have gathered that already (if you know me well at all, then you most likely will agree with me). Well, one of my proudest moments of idioticy (idiocy? idioticness?) occurred earlier this month when I received an email from my school with the subject heading "Financial Aid-IMPORTANT MESSAGE."

Honestly I wasn't fazed in the least when I saw it on my university email page. They literally send me at least five emails a day telling me that my tuition payment is due from the day that the payment shows up on my bill until the day that I pay it. So I figured it was just another one of those.

When I clicked on it though, I knew something was wrong when the majority of the email was in bold-text red. I started to worry a bit. Normally bold-text equals important and red-text equals bad, so bold-text plus red-letter must equal REALLY BAD.

Well, I wasn't wrong. Basically the content of the email stated that they had failed to receive a financial aid application and there wasn't enough time to apply before tuition was due. So that meant that I would have to pay everything out of pocket or else my classes would all be dropped.

So yeah. There I was, sitting at my desk, staring wide-eyed at my laptop screen, chest tightening, heartbeat quickening...

I knew very well how much tuition was going to be. I had been checking my bill pretty regularly on my school's page to find out when financial aid was going to go through, not even thinking that I needed to actually apply for it first.

It was a big amount. Because of some special classes I have to take for my degree, the expenses were higher than usual. Basically the total we would have to pay was around 3 times the amount we normally pay per semester.

I think I panicked for a little while. I knew I would have to tell my parents. I knew they wouldn't be happy. We had been having a lot of car troubles and air conditioning troubles recently (among other things), so another big expense would be most unwelcome at that point in time.

That night I told mom, then I decided to let her tell dad (I'm not a coward, I just wanted to stay alive a little longer).

Truthfully they were pretty upset with me. But they had a good reason to be. I let time slip by and I didn't remember to put in the application (which I always do every summer before the Fall semester. Why did I not remember this? I still have no idea.). Anyways, my mom told me to call the people at the financial aid office to see what options I had.

I thought, Great, that'll be a fun conversation...

FA: "Financial aid office, how can I help you?"

Me: "Yes, I forgot to apply for financial aid, so I was wondering if there was any other way I could get it for the fall."
FA: "Oh, well I'm afraid there isn't."
Me: "Oh."
FA: "I'm sorry about that. It's okay though. A lot of freshmen usually forget to put in the application their first year."
Me: "Actually I'm a senior."
FA: "..."
Me: "Hello?"
FA: "You're an idiot." *hangs up*

Okay, okay, that's not exactly how the conversation went, but the guy did ask me if I was a freshman, and I had to tell him I was a senior. I'm just glad it was a phone conversation.

So I asked the guy a few questions and he told me that I could put in an application and then wait to pay my tuition until after financial aid goes through. That meant that my classes would all be dropped, but I would just have to risk it and re-register for them.

At this point I was thinking, Okay, this'll be fine. We're good. All is good. I put in my application immediately and waited. I was still worried that in the process of dropping classes they would get filled up and I wouldn't be able to re-register for some of them. If that happened, I would have to take summer classes again or wait another semester to graduate. Either way, that would mean more tuition to pay in the future.

And so I prayed. There was nothing else I could do, so I lifted it up to the One who is all-powerful and has the ability to do all things. I asked Him that by some miracle my application would be processed quickly and that financial aid would go through before the payment deadline.

Before I continue this story, I just want to make clear that I looked up the amount of time it takes to process a financial aid application and send it to a school for it to protect Fall semester classes. Normally it takes 2-3 weeks. I tried checking in lots of other places (like Yahoo! Answers) to see if anyone had a different experience, but they all said the same thing.

So, 2-3 weeks for financial aid to go through. My tuition payment was due in a little over 1 week. It just wasn't going to happen.

Resume story.

I got an email the very next day saying that my application had been processed. I was a little stunned, but then I saw that lots of people said that the processing was usually finished quickly. It just took a long time for the school to receive it and cover the tuition.

I literally checked every single day after that to see if my student bill total had changed to reflect the financial aid amount, but it hadn't.

That is, until I went to Starbuck's one afternoon to work on my homework for my summer class. I sat down at a small table against the wall, opened up my laptop, went to the student bill page, and there it was. All of my financial aid had gone through and the total left to pay was the normal amount we always pay.

I was shocked, excited, grateful, and I had to call my mom immediately to tell her. The process that was supposed to take 2-3 weeks was fully completed in 5 days.

God is good. He is gracious and faithful far beyond what I deserve time and time again. I had tears in my eyes as I prayed and thanked Him for being so good to me through my lack of responsibility and my lack of faith.

I write this not just to share a story or to entertain you, dear readers. I write this to remind you that we serve a wonderful God who is mighty and able to do far beyond what we ask or think. All glory be to Him.

End of story.