School on somebody else's dime sounds good to me. But the real priority is to move out of your parents' house, no matter what.

Yeah, I agree with TPS. It's clear from posts you've made that you feel incredibly stifled in your current living situation. It seems that you've made this backpacking trip into The Great Open Door to Freedom. I'm sure it'd be an awesome time, and that you'd learn a lot from it. From where I sit, though, I think you'd gain even more by spending that money on your own place, and investing a little bit differently in your own independence.

It has to happen sometime, and if your comments here are any indication, this is a GOOD time.

If you can move into your own place AND convince your workplace to pay for school, you're golden.

Europe will still be there in 5, 10, and even 40 years.

TPS and mudpuppie give great advice.

Although, my initial thought while reading your blog was, "Don't cancel Europe!" Travel. Have an adventure while you're young and free. If I had the opportunity, and guts, to backpack through Europe, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Moving out has been priority #1 for a while, but the plans keep falling through. (Mostly due to the fact that the two girls I was going to get into a living situation having some personal difficulties and the whole lack of money issue.)

Europe will definitely still be there, and if I can swing things the way that I'm hoping I can them to work out (decent raise or bonus + getting money for school) then I'll be able to GTFO on my own (which is always my first goal). Granted, the only place I can afford is kinda ghetto, but whatevs. It'll be a place that my folks won't have keys for.

Thanks y'all.

Pay for schooling? Wow... In this climate, especially, if this opportunity is available, it would be crazy to throw that away.

Believe me, between those two Aesopy creatures, whatever they are, the one that's very conservative and saving nuts or seeds or tacos or whatever for winter, and the one that flits about with no thought for the future, slurping martinis and wearing outrageous hats, I'm definitely the flitter... live for today, yadayada - but when I think of the people burdened by their student loans, plus the cost for university going up every day, plus the competitive job market, well even I've got to say put down the martini and start stacking those nuts! :)

If you could move out, have a job you like, and get your higher learning on for free... well, that's a life. The trip would be a great thing, but in my estimation not worth sacrificing the rest, if that's the choice.

I'd add that if Out is the goal, maybe you could find more reliably people to pin your hopes on? If others keep ruining it for you, it's time to find different others.

Everyone's said what I'm going to: investing in a grad degree is a great move right now, especially if you can get someone else to chip in on it. I think putting off (not canceling!) the Europe trip is probably a good idea; think about how cool it'll be to give yourself a trip after you graduate. You'll still be young; it'll still be there.

And yeah, you totally need to move out. I also want to suggest that you apply to other schools out of state and see if any of them can give you any grants or work-study/assistantship-type assistance. ALA also has some scholarships available. Don't do what I did at college and assume nobody would give you anything; you don't lose anything but the application fee and a bit of time by trying for every school or scholarship you're even remotely interested in.

Good luck. *hugs*

P.S. I friended you; I hope that's okay.

This school is pretty much the cheapest out there (especially in state, woo) and I can swing it all by myself if need be. I'm paranoid about things like that.

I plan on having a nice long chat with the boss man about it in the super near future and hopefully will be able to report back with goodness.

My plans to be sneaky and move out on the sly have been tossed though, because mom found some notes where I was running numbers last night while I was at work today. Oh, that was a horrific conversation. (Including the whole Laurel=ghetto thing, which is funny, considering I technically work in Laurel. Which is awesome.)

I love new LJ friends.

Europe will still be there in 5, 10, and even 40 years.
Yeah, that's what I thought. Europe's still there, but I ain't gonna be there - life has a nasty habit of getting in the way. Moving out of your parent's place will still be possible when you get back from your trip and it might be a good chance for your parents to find out how well they manage without you there all the time.