As I travel around the internet and read some of the many horror stories that are emerging about young people who take on too much student loan debt, I can’t help but make a few comments about my own situation. First of all, if you don’t know my student loan situation, it made front page news on USA Today about a year ago. Yes, the darling in the picture holding up his Masters Degree is me. Pretty sweet cap and gown, huh?
The woman who wrote the article did a great job of getting some preliminary information out there about student loans and how they are affecting many college and graduate school graduates. And remember, this was before there was a scandal or before it became burgeoning chic to talk about gigantic student loans.
But in that transformation from a one-time front page article in USA Today to the social cause that student loan debt has become, a bad trend has emerged. Namely, this trend is to make those of us who have mega student loans look like we’re victims.
I’m no victim.
Let me make it very clear – I took out all of those student loans with my signature to advance my education to make myself a more well-informed person in a competitive work force and in a competitive world. Me – I did it. No one else did it for me. I wasn’t duped, I wasn’t fooled – I wasn’t taken advantage of by someone one day and found out I had a 6-figure debt the next.
I took out that money to pay for an education that I could not have afforded without it. Plain and simple. Now, if you want to get into my beliefs on how I feel the general education system took advantage of me, then that’s a story I can talk about. If you want to know how teachers who are brainwashed to repeat the mantra of “do good in school, be involved in extracurricular activities, be responsible, go to college,” took advantage of me and every other public school student out there, then we can talk about that.
My issue isn’t with my massive debt (though believe me, it’s a bitch – especially when you’re trying to buy a house). My issue is with those folks who told me since I was a child this ridiculous mantra of how to get ahead in school. They didn’t tell me that young, Caucasian, suburban, intelligent males aren’t the ones who get the free rides to college.
They didn’t tell me that if you’re young, then society believes that you can pay your own way through college. What about those of us who had to work to simply pay our bills and living expenses?
They didn’t tell me that if you’re white, then society says that you must have an advantage over the other students by virtue of your skin color. I had no advantages and I can tell you numerous minority students who went to my undergraduate college for free just because they were Latino or black. Being white didn’t help me (nor does it help anyone who goes to a regular, non-Ivy League college).
They didn’t tell me that if you live in the suburbans, then society believes that you must come from a family with money. Bullshit on that! My family works hard for everything that they have and we are not rich nor are we upper-middle class. We are a regular family in America that struggles to get by – just like 99% of the families in this country. Being from a suburb didn’t help me a damn bit.
They didn’t tell me that if you’re intelligent, then society automatically assumes you are going to get a free ride to college and thus puts their money with the less fortunate. I graduated high school with a 4.02 and more activities, leadership positions, and sports than you could imagine. I got a $4,000 per year “break” on my tuition from my undergraduate institution which was taken away when I moved off campus (now does that make sense?). Being smart didn’t help me get a break with paying for college.
And then there is the fact that I’m a guy. Think about that for a minute. When was the last time you heard of a scholarship for smart, young white guys who live in the suburbs? Yeah, I didn’t think so.
THAT is my issue that is ancillary to the student loan problem – this is what I told the woman who wrote that article about me. I’m not a victim of student loan companies or a corrupted student loan system. I’m an example of what happens when our society turns ultra-liberal and where saying, “Good job,” to a young, white, suburban male is seen as xenophobic and racist against the “less fortunate.”
But as far as these people who are out there saying that they are victims, I have a message for them: get a grip. You signed the paperwork, you took out the loan. Live with it like the rest of us and pay it off as soon as you can.
Joe, I feel for you! I am a white female who is currently preparing to start her junior year at a well known public university in Missouri. That’s right, PUBLIC university! I will graduate (hopefully) in May of 2009 with about $63,000 worth of undergraduate debt. Like you, I am facing the music and realizing that this debt is going to be a nightmare to pay off. I am also prepared to work two full time jobs after college to get out of this debt ASAP. What upsets me most about accumulating so much financial debt is the fact that I, like many students no matter what their race, gender, or ethnicity, went to college with the hope of doing better financially for myself than my parents. My parents didn’t attend college and when I was in the fifth grade my father became terminally ill and could no longer work. My parents had to file for bankruptcy when I was ten. I feel like I am going to live the same financial nightmare they did and that is NOT what I went to college for.
Oh yeah and the financial aid at my school is such a joke. I did over 150 hours of volunteer work while I was in high school and didn’t get one scholarship for my community service.
I hear you, Michelle.
My message is that yes, I know I took out these loans and NO NO NO I am NOT complaining about it. So many people hear us tell our tales and they immediately say, “Stop whining and complaining. You did this to yourselves!”
Well, my response is, “Yes, I did this to myself. No, I’m not complaining. And you know what? The only reason I HAD to do this to myself was because this society thinks that someone with my stats is someone who is not worthy of receiving a free ride to college.”
The most disgusting part of this situation is that you can present these real, hard-to-swallow facts to some of the extremists out there and they respond by rolling their eyes and saying, “Whatever.”