Okay, now that we're all a bit more informed, it's story time! 

Thankfully, the shutdown hasn't affected me personally as I dreaded it would. My upcoming trip to London and all the international government tasks it requires are unaffected so that's a big weight off of my chest. Unfortunately, one of my really good friends is being affected. I just recently found out about this which explains the late(ish) post about the subject. 

My friend, we'll call her E because I'm not sure if she'll be comfortable about me talking about her on the internet, was planning to go abroad this upcoming winter semester in Barcelona. Which, first off, is an awesome. Abroad programs are awesome. So that explains my excitement about that. 

E's father is a government employee at an army base at some undisclosed location. And by undisclosed I mean I really don't remember where. His entire base was let off after the shutdown with no pay or promise of a returning job when the government reopens. This horrible event left E's mother to be the main breadwinner by supporting her husband and paying off their two college-enrolled daughter's loans. Now, E doesn't have sufficient financial backing from her parents to travel abroad. And she's way too busy with schoolwork and her jobs to even fathom applying for a scholarship so that's out the window. I am really not exaggerating this - she had three jobs over the summer alone and has been taking a constant 18-20 credits per semester when she's away at college. Plus, she just got a new part-time job while she's up there. Seriously. The woman is a superhero. 

Oh, did I mention E is a Spanish minor so Barcelona is pretty much an amazing opportunity to expand her learning and overall have a fantastic experience? No? Well, that's a thing.

So, even if you're not directly affected by the shutdown, chances are that someone you know is. What the government doesn't realize is how drastically they are impacting the economy by throwing this giant-sized temper tantrum. See The Colbert Report's (as well as the Daily Show's) coverage on the subject. It really puts things into perspective for those of us who are not as government-savvy as the rest.

Just thought I should put in my story for the cooking pot. I could go on and on about my opinion, but trust me, you don't want to hear me talk about politics. I ramble on worse than a drunk uncle at Christmas. Maybe one day I'll go out on a limb and rant about such things. But for now, I just wanted to share my personal experience (or, rather, E's experience) with the happenings of the U.S. government shutdown. It really makes me angry that someone is prevented from travelling the world because of something like this.  

I truly give my sincerest well-wishes to those affected by the shutdown and hope that everything will be resolved soon.