Living Independently by Brianna

Living Independently by Brianna - August 2013 Scholarship Essay

I am not ashamed to admit it: I am a cheap sake. A penny pincher. “Extremely frugal” as my mother says or a “tightwad” as assigned by my grandpa. The nicknames don’t faze me a bit as long as my wallet is full. I suppose I became so tight with my money because growing up I never really had a lot. As I began to earn money for myself through babysitting and lawn mowing, I wanted to hold onto the cash as long as possible, which meant only spending it on the complete necessities. With this very extreme mentality, I managed to earn about five thousand bucks throughout high school. Not bad.
My senior year of high school I decided to take a class called Independent Living; after all, soon I was going to be in college and living independently. I signed up for the class simply because I thought it was going to be an easy A; I had no idea that I was going to learn such useful and essential material. In class we discussed things like spending, budgeting, loans, insurance, etc. Because I’ve always been so frugal with my money, I thought that I knew everything there was to know about managing money, but I really had no idea until after I’d taken that class. I learned so much. My Independent Living class is the most interesting class I’ve ever taken, and I’m lucky to have learned all the paramount necessities that will help me succeed in college and beyond.