No one thinks of essays as literature – that term is reserved for short stories, poetry, plays, and fiction and non-fiction books. And yet, there are a large number of literary magazines that are devoted to the publication of essays. And there are collections of many writers’ best essays published in book form. Some essayists also publish their collections in books.

You’ve heard all of the hype. If you want a real career, you have to go to college and get that degree. And if you want to specialize at all, you have to go to graduate school – then you can really “write your own ticket.” Maybe you are still undecided about all of this. To make that decision, you really need to stop listening to the “hype” and do some careful research.

Students today graduate with an average of $43,000 in student loan debt. If they go on to graduate school, it can become as high as $100,000 or more. This debt threatens to be one of the most critical threats to the national economy – as bad, perhaps, as the financial meltdown of 2008. Kids with this kind of debt will not be buying homes or new cars; they will not be wild consumers when so much of their monthly incomes must be spent on loan repayments.

It’s good to know that nowadays people read books and the names of such authors as Truman Capote and T.S. Eliot are rather familiar to those who enjoy once in a while getting all comfortable in a quiet place with a book.

Have you always wanted to share your writing with judges who actually might award you a prize? Scholarship essay contests 2015 possibilities are almost over (it is December, after all), but there are still a few for which you might make the deadline!

Oh, she was smart enough and had the grades to prove that. But, her parents couldn't afford to send her, and she didn't want to end up like her aunts and uncles – adults with good careers but with huge student debt that they would be paying off the rest of their working lives.

Getting through college without debt is a privilege reserved for only a few – those kids whose parents can pay for it and those who are given full academic or athletic scholarships.

Perhaps you don’t have a clue about the best places to study abroad or the best country to study abroad for your particular field of interest; maybe you’ve heard that the best cities to study abroad are only those that are well-known – London, Paris, Rome, Geneva – but they don’t excite you.

Whenever graduation time rolls around, I get the announcements – announcements that mean gifts and spending money. Worse, it means I have to come up with gift ideas for students that I may not know well – kids of friends, nieces and nephews that live out of town whom I rarely see, the neighbor’s son or daughter, a co-worker’s child, etc.

I do not speak in the morning, nor do I acknowledge others, until I have at least one large mug of coffee in my gullet. Then, I attack the critical decisions for the day – do I take a real shower or do I wash myself from head-to-toe from the bathroom sink? Can I find a pair of socks to match the pants I plan to wear today, or do I have to go into that dark dryer place to find them? My mornings have not been pleasant.