I’ve been here for four and half long years, and I am finally leaving in two weeks with a well-rounded college education. I suppose now is time to look back and remember the countless number of classes I’ve enrolled in, tests I’ve taken and quizzes I’ve fabricated answers for. It’s time to collect the knowledge I have acquired and get ready to apply it in “the real world.”

Yesterday, however, when I looked in my mail box I learned possibly the most important collegiate lesson of all. My source for financial survival, my leaning post in times of compulsive shopping sprees, my plastic security blanket has been stripped from me, leaving me shivering and helpless as I prepare to enter the working world. In a review of my credit history, my credit card was made aware of a change in my credit rating and instructed me to cut my card in half.

Here lies the most important lesson of college – pay your bills on time. Since the day I received my first phone bill living in Lawson Hall, I have suffered from payment procrastination. I have the money in my bank account. I know when the bill is due. Yet, month after month I have trouble writing out that check and parting with my cash.

Reaching for the scissors, though, is far more excruciating than reaching for the checkbook. Cutting that card means saying good-bye to low interest rates, loans, low car payments and maybe even signing a lease. I rarely thought about these things when my phone was shut off freshman year or when I neglected to pay my water bill on time.

Credit cards can be great tools, and I’m not suggesting going without one. Credit can help you out in an emergency (isn’t that why we all get them in the first place?) and help you build a good credit rating. Having no credit rating is almost as damaging as having bad credit, and many of my non card-holding friends experienced the same struggles once they graduated. I even took a trip overseas, charging up almost all of my expenses with no regrets. Oh, except that I forgot to pay the ensuing bills.

The fact is even the most minute mistakes can mess up a credit rating. Even switching credit cards for a lower interest rate damages your overall report. Understanding credit and realizing the long-term consequences of late payments beyond late charges are vital when acquiring that magical plastic.

Clearly, I was not responsible enough to handle the bills and payments of grown-up life. Maybe you have friends like me, or maybe you suffer from payment procrastination yourself. There is hope, so don’t go running for the kithcen scissors yet. Credit can be rebuilt and a good place to start is everyday bills. Begin before you are thrust into a world of co-signing, rejection and interest. It’s a cold and scary place unfit for anyone making less than $30,000 a year.

I learned more than just a textbook education at Eastern. I will take many experiences on life, friends and love. Unfortunately, money makes the world go around and I should have taken some time to learn something about financial management.