Truth of Youth: Do you worry about student loans?

“It is not the accumulation of debt that I fear, but the paying back of said debt.

With all appropriate humility, I will say that it appears that I have a bright future in several areas of interest. Therefore it would not seem wise to begin such a future chained to a negative fortune, the pangs of which even a college graduate’s salary cannot promise to alleviate.

Due to the repeal of the draft, the U.S. military has become a generous and appealing provider of scholarships for those willing to serve their country. A military career has always been an oft-thought-of option to me, even if I do not choose a career field which requires excessive amounts of higher education.

I have not yet decided that this is the path I will take; I have been told by older people, however, that I have my whole life left to choose.”

Alex Duvaul, junior

Home School, Rice Hill

“With today’s economy in the state it is, I most definitely worry about taking out student loans once I begin college. However, most of us just don’t have the money to fund something as large scale as college, so student loans are the reality of things and in the near future for us.

I think we as teens need to do as much as we can to ensure that we get scholarships. I can safely say that as a freshly released college student, I’ll be in no position to be paying back an immense amount of loans, and I won’t ask my parents to hand over their savings to foot the bill.

On the other hand, I know that most of my friends who have gone off to the universities have taken out student loans, and to my knowledge they’ve all turned out financially stable, if not prosperous.

So where yes, I am worried, I have faith that (to quote a friend) the universe tends to unfold as it should. We’ll all get through, whatever comes our way.”

Megan Matthews, senior

Riddle High School

“Just finishing my sophomore year, and going into my junior year, I suppose I need to start worrying about loans and college. I realize that 90 percent if not more or less (I’m no mathematician) of the students take out loans. Personally at the moment I don’t know where I stand on how much I need to take out, to spend and to save. Or for that matter, where I’m even going to college.

Now I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. Loans (at least for me), aren’t like $20,000 bogeymen, all bedazzled in the latest fashions, that jump out at me in the middle of the night just before I go off to college. No, loans, at least at the moment, are just like, oh, I don’t know, a basket of corn sitting in the corner of my room. I know it’s there, I know I don’t need to worry about it ‘sprouting legs’ and killing me in the middle of the night. It’s corn!

So in a weird ironic way (corn: terrible example), student loans are nothing to worry about ... for now.”

Zachary McKinney, junior

Roseburg High School

Truth of Youth, which appears in Monday’s News-Review, is an opportunity for teens to express their opinions. If you would like to submit a question, write to Teresa Williams at P.O. Box 1248, Roseburg, OR 97470 or e-mail twilliams@nrtoday.com.