I’m about to open a can of soup I purchased for $1.68 at Wal-Mart.

This will be my dinner tonight, as well as lunch tomorrow. As a treat to myself, I pick up some saltine crackers for another $1.68 on my way to the register.

I’ve reached a point in my life where $1.68 for crackers is considered a luxury because college has made me unemployable at most traditional jobs, and I’m tired of being quiet about it.

I know I’m not alone.

Last issue’s Eagle Examiner, with 19 total votes from students, showed a majority of responders answered yes to the question, “Have oddly-timed classes ever forced you to work fewer hours than usual?” I belong squarely in that 79 percent, and it’s not a fun experience.

Due to major requirements, students are destined to encounter that one class – the class that happens at a weird time of day, nowhere near the block of classes you were able to choose based on their time.

Two months ago, I stood in a room, a budding senior with a wonderful job, and watched myself be outsourced by people who either had no classes, or bright-eyed freshmen who could still manage to book classes efficiently.

Two days a week it’s impossible for me to pick up a shift during the morning or afternoon. Not because I have a block of four classes back to back, oh no. I have a 10 a.m. and a 4:30 p.m.

Between those two short engagements are six hours of dead time, $43.50 if I went and picked up a partial shift at the Chuckles gas station down the street. That is if any entry-level job existed that allowed employees to pop in for an hour whenever they please.

In a world where SurveyMonkey links appear in one’s Eagle Mail from various organizations and classes, it’s ridiculous students are never asked their preference for class times.

If only someone would take the time to take student’s schedules into account when building a semester’s classes.

That was a hint I just dropped there, administration. Pick it up if you wish.