Book Review: "The Broke Diaries" by Angela Nissel

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" The Check-Cashing joint is kinda like a homeless shelter for money. Well, a homeless shelter with a door charge. They know the only reason you're there is because you have nowhere else to go, but they take advantage of the situation by charging you fees for everything. First-time check-casing fee. Payroll-check fee. Welfare-check fee. Breathing too hard while in line? Extra-breath fee. You can't just be sucking in all the check-cashing air for free! Pay up!" -Angela Nissel from The Broke Diaries 

Hello there Friends, Mothers, Lovers and Other Strangers,

Upon my goal to read 1 book a month the first one I chose was The Broke Diary by Angela Nissel. The book consists of diary entries she kept while she was a lowly underpaid college student. We follow Angela, or Ang as she ends all of her entries, through her struggles with being short on rent, being rejected by a bank, using her cat's water bowl to make a potluck dish and dating a guy who breeds, slaughters and cooks his own prizewinning chickens(she says it's true and I'm inclined to believe her).

Having been in her shoes I could totally relate to the tales listed within and likely you have too. Being broke is not simply a college thing. We've all been in situations where we've found ourselves literally just 3 cents shy of a pack of Ramen (C'mon man! You know I'm good for it).

It's quite a short book (by an avid reader's standards) so I don't want to risk giving too much away but there is an entry about attending a free poetry reading that still has me in tears with laughter. Revolution!

My only criticisms on the book, aside from it's length, is that we don't get to see much of the journey out of the "broke status". Angela went on to do great things like establishing the hip-hop culture website OkayPlayer along with ?uestlove from The Roots and becoming a writer and producer for the tv show "Scrubs". I'm sure that simply getting job after college wasn't the only thing she needed to get a handle on her financial situation. Also some of the entries are getting to be a little dated as time passes (i.e. having overdrafts due to collect calling from a payphone) but this really can't be helped.

I feel that this should be required reading for all high school seniors and college freshmen. While she allow us to laugh at her pain, Angela Nissel also shows us the often harsh realities of entering into young adulthood. Click here to purchase the book from Amazon while showing my humble blog a little love in the process.

And down went Alice after it...

" After years of expensive education, a car full of books and anticipation, I'm an expert on Shakespeare and that's a hell of a lot. But the world don't need scholars as much as I thought."
                                                         -Jamie Cullum from the song "Twentysomething"

It's Sunday, September 1st, 2013. My birthday Is December 6th. In exactly 95 days from now I will be thirty years of age. THIRTY! As in 3 in the tens place. Age never really used to mean that much to me. Just the odometer rolling over to another year. Turning 30, however, feels markedly different. It's as if your twenties are simply a decade long "Adulthood Orientation" and once you hit this magic number a myriad of proverbial clocks start ticking: Marriage. Career Advancements. Home buying. Having kids. Sending those kids to college. Retirement.

The thing about me though? I pretty much slept through orientation. I became a mother at 20. I stumbled through college. I graduated with an almost totally useless major. I've amassed major student loan debt. I couldn't find substantial work for years after graduating. I went through a series of bad relationships. I even had cancer for crying out loud!! I mean...What the F&8K man?? Where was I when all the good life stuff was being handed out??? I've been known to not be a complete idiot. I've been called cute by people outside of my immediate family. I'm usually nice to everyone. Never been in trouble with the law (so far). And yet here comes time telling me I have to start writing the next chapter when I've only just begun writing the last one. I never planned for this to happen.

But now I'm coming into a sobering realization. I never planned for these things to happen because...well...I never PLANNED. I've hardly ever had any clear goals...any driven purpose. I have never really been motivated to do or be anything. When people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up I could always give answers that sounded good: lawyer, stock broker, composer. And sure these were things I had SOME interest in. But once I started hearing about all that was entailed with learning the trades I got scared. Fear of failure begets fear of trying. I always took the simplest way out and it came back to bite me in the ass with razor sharp teeth.

With that being said my battleship, though it has taken on a lot a water, isn't completely sunk. I am learning to take responsibility for what got me here. And that is the purpose of me creating this blog. I'm using this to make myself accountable for the steps I'm taking to make things better and to keep a living record of my journey. I'm doing this to put stakes on my goals which in turn puts stakes on my learning process. Now if I fail to plan, I fail publicly. At least publicly to the extent of which others are actually reading this blog. Now don't be alarmed, I don't intend to be all business here. In between sharing the things I'm learning there's plenty of room for my usual randomness.

 I have discovered that I have 3 major passions in my life: music, food and personal finance. Although I know a lot of things about them I'm not an expert in any one subject but I'd like to be, as these are to tools I intend to use to get to where I want to be in life. Here I'll post about the books I'm reading, the software and websites I use, the new things I'm trying, and some of the ideas I'm tossing around. Anyone is welcome to join in on the conversation.

For all that changes in a person there are elements, usually good ones, that will always remain the same. My 30th birthday is fast approaching. But for the next 3 months and 5 days "I'm a twentysomething and I'll keep being me."