Have you ever had the feeling that someone is following you: that there is some creepy person watching your every move? Well I have, and it is really starting to get weird. This guy will not leave me alone. He is everywhere I turn. He sends me hate mail and vicious email: he is a total cyber-bully! He is holding my free-wheeling lifestyle ransom for 700 dollars a month (with interest!)
Mr. Debt Bummer makes me walk-on egg shells; afraid to buy a cookie at the Kwik Shop.
I guess I got myself in this mess, insisting that I have a good education, that would get me my dream job, and help me pay for the life I want to lead (in all reality there is NO WAY my dream job would be able to pay for half the things I want to do, but I still want to complain) but I guess that was too demanding on my part.
So forgive me Mr. Bummer, for having too high expectations for the reality that is post-grad. That reality is: none of my student financial “advisors” told me…maybe you should work for a year out of high school, save-up and then go to school because believe me there is NO guarantee that you will even get a job and be able to pay back those loans. Oh and you know what, they don’t charge you for your degree based on the estimated four year income for the degree path you choose, so have fun paying 2 times what your skill is actually valued at in the real world. (Believe me I realize that there a lot of other variables that factor into this education and debt equation but I choose not to take those into account for the sake of venting.)
So now we are budget fiends counting every penny and hoping to save up enough to put our children through college someday. But calculations show that we need to be putting a lot more away than we possibly can right now. So sorry future children if we can’t pay for your college mommy and daddy didn’t realize that the financial decisions they made when they were 18 would impact your college experience.
Wish we had known that.
Thank you for writing this. I've been wanting to write something similar for a long time but everytime I sit down to do it I get pissed and depressed and end up walking away before I throw my computer off Ron's balcony.
ReplyDeleteCrazy enough, I have been feeling a lot of the same about my school debt. Just a major bummer. It's not something that I received good advise about. It's a travesty indeed that college students in actuality live poorer lives than those who start off working early. Thank you for the vent. Much needed read.
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting about this!
ReplyDeleteI think this could be said by every student walking away with a degree from most small Christian colleges.
I, too, was shocked at real world loan repayment figures that happen 6 months post graduation. I know those numbers were not presented in that format in the admissions office as a 17 year college hopeful from a tiny Texas town with her single mom willing to do anything to get me enrolled.
My husband has less loans from 1 year at McPherson College and attending KSU for 4 years while living off campus in college apartments than I do from 4 years at CCC.
Thank you for venting! Student loan repayment is such a huge hindrance in our lives too-I can only imagine how much more we could do with an extra $600/month to support ministries and go on short term mission trips.