at the end of the day, they'll get themselves into a mess, they'll have to get themselves out of said mess. karma will come and get them. so...relax

I lived on my loan.

Hello. I'm Max Gogarty. I'm 19 and live on top of a hill in north London.

At the minute, I'm working in a restaurant with a bunch of lovely, funny people; writing a play; writing bits for Skins; spending any sort of money I earn on food and skinny jeans, and drinking my way to a financially blighted two-month trip to India and Thailand. Clichéd I know, but clichés are there for a reason.

I'm kinda shitting myself about travelling. Well not so much the travelling part. It's India that scares me. The heat, the roads, the snakes, Australian travellers. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited. But shitting myself. And I just know that when I step off that plane and into the maelstrom of Mumbai - well, actually, I don't know how I'll react.

I'm doing India on my own. I've options to meet up with people there, but for the most part, it'll be me and my backpack. I fly into Mumbai today, but will move down to Goa pretty sharpish and chill there for a few days - a nice, slow introduction hopefully laced with lots of swimming, sunbathing and partying. And then South India's pretty much my oyster - Kerala, Madurai, Bangalore, Cochin, Mysore ... Wherever. I'm free to roam. That's the beauty of doing it by myself.

Practically all of my friends are dotted around the globe scouring every nook and cranny for a bit of culture and enlightenment (but secretly hoping to run into as many full-moon parties as possible). But it seems all gappers I know - wherever they are - will be going to Thailand in March or April, and every one I've spoken to is making no secret of the fact that Thailand should be pretty damn decadent.

I'm not entirely sure what appeals to me about travelling. Maybe the lack of work or study? The mayhem? The imagined company of beautiful girls ... all very good reasons to travel. And whether I'm right or not, I'm pretty sure it'll be a world away from cowering under an umbrella at the 134 bus stop.

Anyway, you could come with me every step of the way - well, not every step. Just a few minutes once a week, via this blog. Even so, I'll do my best to tell of the debauched beach parties, the dodgy days with "washing machine" tummy, the messy late-night stumblings into bars and, of course, all that bullshit about finding myself.

I have already experienced my first taste of India - and I only had to go as far as Aldwych. The Indian High Commission is a funny place. At first sight, it would be easy to get disorientated and think that you'd been transported to the queue for Space Mountain at Disneyworld. But in fact, you're 10 minutes from a Ben Elton Musical and just want a visa. Eight in the morning and the queue was already tailgating round the block. And that was just the queue to get a ticket to come back later. I finally got my
visa at four in the afternoon - tired, dazed and convinced that one or two very simple but effective changes - such as computerised ticket dispensers - would've made the whole thing much more bearable.

Anyway, I've had to get malaria tablets, purchase travellers' cheques, sort out travel insurance, try and find a universal bloomin' plug, buy a backpack, get iodine drops (whatever they are) and enjoy dozens of injections off a nurse who was grumpy and trying to get me to pay a hundred quid to minimise the after-effects of being bitten by a monkey. I still fancied her though. She was a nurse.

WHO GIVES A SHIT

THEY CAN DO WITH IT WHAT THEY WANT AS LONG AS THEY PAY IT BACK.

i think. it may not be right, but so?

and how would you go about this exactly? I mean when you drop out they stop giving you loan so unless your doing it over summer. If your parents are paying for you at uni then that is declared as unearned income meaning you get less loan.

but why does this matter? It's a loan, not a grant, you have to pay it back. It isn't taking money away from anyone else, as far as I can see.

I don't like the attitude that it's ok to hate people who aren't living on the breadline. My parents saved up for years to send me to university, so I have to admit I spent the majority of my loan on vodka and CDs. I'm very grateful to them, I worked hard at university, and now I have a job I don't like taking money from them. I didn't think I was better than anyone else who had to work to put themselves through university, I was just very grateful that I didn't, and I'd like to do the same for my children if I can.

I also overheard a bunch of "la's" going on about how "daddy's paying for them to go skiing in easter and how they're going to Dubai...again in easter which is a bit of a bore". HATE. Some of us have jobs too and can't afford to go on jaunts like that or obliterate our loans. Its there for study not for study breaks.

What did you use yours for? Paying your rent?

...I slay me sometimes...

to tar everyone with the same brush. I'm using some of my loan to inter rail around europe for a bit in the summer, but I also work every holiday to save money for the term and my parents are seperated so I do deserve the loan I get. I've saved this year to afford to do it, cut back on things I'd normally spend money on like cds, drink etc to make my loan and the money I earned go further so I don't see how exactly that makes me a cunt. I can see your point when someones parents pay their way and they get to spend their loan on luxuries, but then again thats only because I'm jealous I can't do the same. Their parents are only trying to give them the best possible start in life but it can be frustrating when they don't appreciate that.

a lot of them get their final loan with nary a few weeks of their degree left.

and anyway, everybody knows that the richest people in the land are students. who else can afford to go boozing in pubs every day of the week?

fuck em.

I'm normally a silent witness on DiS and don't get involved but this thread really struck a chord with me.

I was at uni 1999-2002. During that time I paid for everything. Every book, every economy can of baked beans, all my fees, my rent, everything. I had more than one job, I lived off my loan and butchered a credit card and an overdraft. Everything's paid back now except the student loan. I never went over my credit limit or overdraft. In that time I also ran a car, and I had a couple of foreign holidays - which I PAID FOR MYSELF. And, fuck it, I AM going to blow my own trumpet, I got a first.

I had a great time at uni and I shall forever be proud about what I achieved.

It's about taking personal responsibility. A lot of people have no concept of what that is.

I am not for one moment jealous of people from families who can afford to financially help their kids. If my parents had the cash I would've without doubt taken it. However, I certainly wouldn't have abused the money or the system.

These people that take the loans that don't need them are without doubt cunts of the highest order. Cunts without any morals whatsoever. Some people NEED that money to actually live on. The fuckers that are taking what they don't need means the budget gets spread thinner fot everyone and drives people into poverty and even criminality.

But the ones that are spoon fed by their parents and take money for granted don't learn anything. I've got a couple of mates that are still bank-rolled by mummy and daddy and they're into their mid/late 20s. Reality and them don't mix so well.

So listen up, all you people that currently are saving their loan to go to Thailand, that are pissing it up the wall or have it stashed in a ISA: you are absolute bastards. You think you're educated because you're at uni? You've got a lot to learn. Shame on you.

raping ones way around the world interests me.

Please expand. Is there a Trailfinders brochure?

I'm not sure who loses out in all this, isn't the student loans system self-financing?

In spite of my parent's combined income dropping from my second year into my third, I went from the full loan amount to the minimum. I wrote and phoned them but nothing happened. So I absolutely scrimped my way through my third year (paying off the massive credit card bill I had created going to Africa in the summer to see my girlfriend - she dumped me when i got there) including a disertation research trip to Dublin. Then I had really early exams and even had to borrow money from my mates to get the train in to attend said exams, and right afterwards, they rectified it and gave me shitloads. Yeah cheers, thanks.

The uni I went to was full of Horrah Henries and the like but I have long since learnt I couldn't really give a toss what other people do. I'll stick by my morals and I'll try my best to ignore everyone else because they just irritate me

we've already established in your previous 354 threads on this subject that you don't like students who travel, or people who take gap years. Great.

There is no solid reason to object to people spending money they are borrowing (at no loss to anyone else) on going travelling or whatever else they want, right?