How many of you can relate to being a full-time student and paying for your own college? How are you doing it? Thousands of dollars in loans? A few scholarships and 30 hours of work per week? I’ve been there.

I used to despise my parents for not helping me pay for my college. No matter what FAFSA says my parents should be putting towards my education, I am completely on my own. Sure, my parents make a decent living, but NEWS FLASH FAFSA! The day I turned 18 my parents no longer have to support me, so your recommendation of what my parents should be paying does absolutely nothing for me. Ya, let me just slide over a $20,000 student loan and tell my parents “according to FAFSA, you can afford to pay for 70% of my education. I’ll take that in a check, please.” Sorry, this doesn’t work.

Have I been jealous in the past that I have friends who have no money worries — who don’t struggle and work 20 hours a week to pay $750 a month in rent, have no loans and carry around their parents’ credit cards? Absolutely! Who hasn’t? But the jealousy and despising my parents for doing this to me has long resided.

Instead of despising my parents, I commend them for forcing me to survive in the world on my own. My ability to “adult” has matured so quickly since I started college. Honestly, I have seen people who do not know how to write a check or start a dishwasher because they had things handed to them most of their life.

They might be less stressed in college, but I am so confident that after college I won’t struggle in the adult world because I had to start being an adult the day I turned 16 and could drive. My parents said, “you can drive a car, so you can work and help support yourself.”

The way my parents raised me and how they “stopped” raising me when I turned 18 and kicked me out of the nest has helped me be the successful person I am. They kicked me out of the nest and I had to learn how to fly! It taught me so much, like good work ethic, time management and how to allocate my funds.

If your parents aren’t supporting you in college, don’t be angry with them. They do it because they love you and want you to succeed in the real world. Teaching me to be on my own was one of the best things my parents could have done for me.