Dear Beans for Books,

 As I would love to humor you with a personal joke or two, I find it difficult to conjure any humor in asking for financial assistance. However, I will entertain you with my own personal story. It may not be unique in nature, or, a story that you haven’t already heard. But, I can rest assure you it is my own. 

Let me first say that I am classified as a non-traditional college student. What that means, (if you aren’t already aware) is that I’m an adult student. To be quite frank, I’m forty-four years old. I only share this with you to emphasize my point of needing financial aid. As a non-traditional student, I’m not eligible for a large portion of financial assistance that is typically available for college students because of my age. So therefore, I have to seek out sources that don’t have any age restrictions.

There are a number of reasons why I didn’t pursue my college education twenty years ago after leaving the military. Those reasons, whether valid or imaginary, aren’t really important. What I would like to focus on, as well as share with you, is the reason why I did decided to pursue my education after twenty years.

 Two years ago, while working as an admission advisor for an online university, I had one of those enlightening moments. While explaining the difficulties to a potential student about being competitive in the work force without a college education, I realized (she wasn’t aware of my revelation) that both of us were in the same boat. We were both adults, in our forties trying to compete for higher paying jobs without a college degree. It was at that moment that I decided to take the advice I was offering this student and use it for myself. Soon afterwards, I left my position as a college advisor to pursue my college education. For the last two years, while working as an account executive for a Fortune 500 company, I enrolled in evening classes at my community college. It was quite convenient for seventeen months, since both work and school were located in downtown Chicago. In August, the day my fall semester began, I was forced to leave my full-time job. This was a culmination of lingering I.R.S. problems and mounting pressures within my company to generate business in an already deteriorating U.S. economy. 

Also, for the last two years, through my G.P.A., I’ve been able to validate for myself what I could not prove without a college degree to the many employers I’ve had over the last twenty years;  And that was that I was smart; I was intelligent, and,  I was I was worthy of having a higher salary position. In the spring of 2010, I will begin to establish my credentials and finally arm myself with the proof needed to compete for those higher paying jobs when I receive my associate degree. I plan on staying on this personal, educational quest to eventually receive a doctorate degree.  

Since having the fall semester recently end, I find myself standing in a financial quagmire. I’m faced several major challenges that could jeopardize my ambitious, educational trek. The first, is finding a part-time job flexible enough for me to work around my school schedule in already tight, dwelling job market that even job seekers with master degrees are finding difficult. The second is paying for the four core courses of books that I will need.  My philosophy course alone requires the purchase of five books.  To make matters even worse, I found out just last week that the college book store won’t be buying back the computer book that cost me $150.00.In addition, I’m also facing the challenge of catching up on the back rent I owe due to my loss of recent employment.  Lastly, if I can be quite frank, I’ve exhausted all of my available resources to possibly even pay for my school books.  

In conclusion, any assistance that Beans for Books could offer me to alleviate one of my major academic challenges that I’m faced with would be greatly appreciated and always remembered. It would also mean for me that I could focus on the other financial challenges I’m faced with for a smooth and successful spring quarter.

Sincerely,

Eric P. Martin