Maggie attends the University of Maryland, College Park, is double majoring in Spanish and political science and is also a stripper. You better werk. Maggie is living the American dream. She is graduating completely debt-free thanks to her part-time job as a stripper. Maggie earns around $180,000 a year which is much more than college costs, much more than I or my parents make, much more than most people make. She admits that while the job doesn’t make her feel any differently about herself, at times it can be degrading. “There are times that it feels like that.” However she adds that she felt more disrespected as a waiter (anyone who has been in food service can probably attest to that). Maggie said, “I have felt so much more disrespected as a waitress than I ever have ever felt as a dancer,” Maggie said. “Because your job [in a restaurant] is to serve them and in this, your job is to accompany them.” And yes, her parents weren’t all that happy about it. “My parents, when they found out, were totally horrified.” I am sure the debt would have been more horrifying. At the nightclub where she dances there are 24 other women stripping to put themselves through college. It’s a testament of the rising cost of college and the sad unemployment rates but hey, women get shit done. The reason this girl is my hero is because it’s not an easy job and because she is doing what she has to in order to achieve success. Don’t want to owe tens of thousands of dollars in debt? Strip. This kind of pragmatism isn’t for everyone—I could never do it—and it takes courage to bare it all like that but the hustle should be respected is all I am saying. There ain’t nothing wrong with it. Make that money. Get that paper (that degree). Rule the world.