I'm Finally A GrownUp!
Until I checked my mail today, I was always under the impression that becoming "Grown-Up" was contingent on getting my first permanent honest-to-god job. Man, was I way off. Today I was blind-sided by the feeling of being grown-up when I opened my mailbox, and found *gasp* my very own honest-to-god VISA card. Gone are the carefree days of irresponsibility. Today, I became a woman.
Don't get me wrong. I have credit. Lots of it. Mainly because I have spent the last 10 years on various University campuses. If you've been on campus at any point over the past 20 years, you know what I'm talking about. You walk by a table, feel strangely compelled to own the compilation Jazz CD or black baseball cap that says CANADA across the front, and decide "Sure, I could use another Mastercard". However, you are an honest person, so it doesn't even occur to you that your first name can become "Joey Joe Joe Shabadoo" residing at "123 Fake Street". Next thing you know, you have 36 Mastercards sitting in your wallet, and a closet full of crap that you could have bought at the Sally Anne for about 7 cents. Yes, getting a Mastercard is about as difficult as confusing Paris Hilton with hyperbole for a University student.
But Visa cards are a different story. Visa doesn't recruit the average University student. They don't have to. Visa instead caters to the upscale businessman working on Bay, the soccer-mom who drives her Suburban to pick up milk, the rich kid whose parents want them to have access to cash "just in case" (cosigned and paid for by Daddy dearest of course) . Visa is the card that my parents used as I was growing up. Visa is "The Credit of the Responsible".
So now I join the ranks of the responsible. I own a Visa card. And I have a decent amount of credit on it. I will be responsible, as Visa has so deemed, and will remove one of my several Mastercards from my wallet and replace it with the card I affectionatelly refer to as "Visey". And if I am ever in a situation where the vendor will accept Visa but not Mastercard, I will no longer have to worry about walking away in shame (although that has only happened once, and it was in Estonia). Yes, I will face the world tomorrow as one of the responsible.
But I will never forget how, when the rest of the world saw me as an irresponsible student for 10 years, Mastercard saw me as an investment. As such, Visey will stay in my wallet as an alternative only. For everything else, there's Mastercard.
Don't get me wrong. I have credit. Lots of it. Mainly because I have spent the last 10 years on various University campuses. If you've been on campus at any point over the past 20 years, you know what I'm talking about. You walk by a table, feel strangely compelled to own the compilation Jazz CD or black baseball cap that says CANADA across the front, and decide "Sure, I could use another Mastercard". However, you are an honest person, so it doesn't even occur to you that your first name can become "Joey Joe Joe Shabadoo" residing at "123 Fake Street". Next thing you know, you have 36 Mastercards sitting in your wallet, and a closet full of crap that you could have bought at the Sally Anne for about 7 cents. Yes, getting a Mastercard is about as difficult as confusing Paris Hilton with hyperbole for a University student.
But Visa cards are a different story. Visa doesn't recruit the average University student. They don't have to. Visa instead caters to the upscale businessman working on Bay, the soccer-mom who drives her Suburban to pick up milk, the rich kid whose parents want them to have access to cash "just in case" (cosigned and paid for by Daddy dearest of course) . Visa is the card that my parents used as I was growing up. Visa is "The Credit of the Responsible".
So now I join the ranks of the responsible. I own a Visa card. And I have a decent amount of credit on it. I will be responsible, as Visa has so deemed, and will remove one of my several Mastercards from my wallet and replace it with the card I affectionatelly refer to as "Visey". And if I am ever in a situation where the vendor will accept Visa but not Mastercard, I will no longer have to worry about walking away in shame (although that has only happened once, and it was in Estonia). Yes, I will face the world tomorrow as one of the responsible.
But I will never forget how, when the rest of the world saw me as an irresponsible student for 10 years, Mastercard saw me as an investment. As such, Visey will stay in my wallet as an alternative only. For everything else, there's Mastercard.
posted by Anderson at 11:46 AM
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