Well, since my big, national debut on Monday in USA Today, I’ve been called a bunch of things. The funniest (and probably truest) was when I was given the title, “The Poster Child for Student Loan Debt.”

Ha ha ha!!!

Oh man. Ain’t it the truth? A lot of people are just amazed that I owe so much money. Hey – that’s what it takes for a person in my position to make it through school these days. One of the most eye opening parts of the whole cover story on USA Today was the online blog that they kept for the story. So many people try to disqualify my situation or the other students’ situations by comparing them to their own. Well, I got news for you…your situation doesn’t mean much to me because I’m not in your situation!

Each of us that were interviewed spent a great deal of time telling the reporter (who did a masterful job, by the way) our specific situations. She only had a limited amount of space to tell the story – she couldn’t squeeze all of it in there! No one knows about how I was discriminated against for coming from a family that made too little to pay for my college expenses, but too much to qualify for most grants. They have no idea how my bird-brained high school guidance counselor withheld my applications to all of the schools that had assured me full-rides because she noticed I hadn’t signed certain parts of the applications.

Side note – she held the applications from October until April without telling me that she had them. I had to actually ask her where my letters of acceptance or rejection were in April before she told me that she never sent them out (they were sitting in a folder on her desk). I hate her.

Anyway, the point is that if I’m the poster child for student loan debt, then everyone better get ready. I’m young, I’m hungry, I’m highly-skilled, I’m intelligent, and I’m pissed off…