A few years back my 19 yo American son had a great experience working the summer as a camp counselor here in the states. It is a religious camp (not that my son is that religion) that draws in campers from the states and Europe. Many of those campers as they get older come back as counselors. They get the appropriate visas, make money working the camp for 8 weeks, then take the few weeks after camp before they have to leave and blow that money on traveling the States and their trip home. It was an incredible experience and inspired my son to bust his ass, save money, and a few years later took a self funded trip to Europe where he couch surfed these homes of the friends he made.

I think about those kids this year. There’s no way I’d risk traveling back to this shit hole country if I were them.

When I was growing up I never connected that we always had a special “breakfast for dinner” the night before Easter. What was happening is that my parents would carefully crack one end of a dozen eggs to preserve the majority of the shell, and wash them. After lightly baking the empty shells to make sure they were dry/sanitary, my dad would fill them with a candy mix (M&Ms, Skittles, peanuts, mints) then seal the egg with royal icing and dry. These eggs would be hidden in random places throughout the house. Little kid me never questioned the arrival of the eggs, but enjoyed smashing the shell and spilling the candy out.

By the time I had kids, the best I could muster is plastic shells we would fill with candy and toys. My kids still had fun and I just reused the shells year after year.

I just build ovens for a living, I didn’t think they’d actually use them.

The student doesn’t pay for highschool, but there are still fees. My income was low enough that they waived the (roughly) $500-700 a year though. They based it off the paperwork to qualify for free/reduced lunches.