Living in a Van at Duke University
Here’s a salon.com article written by a grad student who decides to live in a ‘94 Econoline van because he views it as the only way to escape taking out loans to finance his graduate education. In the article, he describes his experiences–buying food in bulk and cooking it on a small camping stove, surviving ant infestations and increasingly noxious smells–and discusses the effects of consumerism and debt on all students, and American society in general.
I was lying on the floor of my van where the middle pilot chairs used to be, trying to hide from view. This is it, I thought. They know. I’m going to get kicked out of Duke.
Moments before, I had been cooking a pot of spaghetti stew on top of a plastic, three-drawer storage container, which held all my food and my few meager possessions. I figured the campus security guard had parked next to me because he spotted the blue flame from my propane stove through the van’s tinted windows and shades.
I held my breath as he shut off the engine and opened his door. I was in my boxer shorts, splayed across my stain-speckled carpet like a scarecrow toppled by the wind.
The article continues here.
