February 1, 2012 - the beginning of one of the longest commitments of my entire life.
In this commitment, it seems that I'll be spending the rest of my life tending to their needs. I'll never have the chance to ignore them because they're everywhere. My entire life will be dictated to making sure this relationship doesn't go south.
As much as I would love to say this person took care of me and kept me happy all these years, that'd be a lie. Then again, that would be like saying that this relationship is with a physical person. No, February 1, 2012 was the day I learned of my acceptance to King's College and the day I began my relationship with student debt.
One of the biggest lies I was told growing up was that being smart was all you needed to have a successful future. This lie was not told out of malice, but instead of the experience of adults who knew that a good work ethic was more than enough to put a young person through college. It was the idea that if you loved to do something enough and you worked hard, the future would just work out for you. That isn't the case anymore.
Despite the encouraging idea my family told me, I always like to reflect on one of the quotes from my high school homeroom and government teacher, "There's no such thing as a free lunch." In this case, there's no magical clear path to your future just because you're following your dream. This isn't some movie or television show, the reality of the situation is the fact that dreams are nice but impossible if you cannot financially go down that path.
This commitment to your dreams isn't always a freeing path, sometimes just get the chance to want to survive on your own, we become shackled down by thousands of dollars of debt. We need 4 years of working towards a degree to barely afford a one bedroom apartment doing some job that is capable of bringing home enough funds to survive. And it just keeps adding up from that initial decision on choosing our future academic institutions.
As soon as I opened up that red envelope congratulating me on my acceptance to my number one choice, I had made one major decision that started this unfortunate relationship. I had made the decision that my best choice at a great future was at a private, Catholic college. I was still on the fence about becoming so deep in debt, but the price of chasing my dream was worth it.
Don't get me wrong, going to King's has been one of the best decisions of my life. I've learned so much and have become a person I am proud of, but the fact is that I've sold my soul to my loans for the rest of my life. If it wasn't for the last four years of my life, I wouldn't be able to be the bright young professional I am who plans to continue their education at Boston University for a masters in journalism. But I'd be lying to say that choosing to continue to chase my dream hasn't been a difficult one.
I know that, if I wanted, there would definitely have been some sort of job for me if I had gone looking. But, to be realistic, this world has greatly changed for someone to just get an entry level job anywhere. Before, if you just had a good work ethic and a high school education, you'd be more than okay. With how the world is looking, soon not even a Bachelor's degree will be enough. I'm choosing to put myself into more debt now so that I can be able to just afford a small apartment for me and my cat.
I'm going to be thousands of dollars in debt right from the start and I think I'm going to be paying it off for the rest of my life just because I'm chasing my dream. It really stinks to grow up and realize how expensive it'll be just for a chance to be doing something with your life that makes you happy.
I always thought that being happy and in a relationship after college would be something completely different. I am happy that I'm going to chase my dream but I didn't expect to be signing up to be in a relationship with student loan debt for the rest of my life. If there's anything I've learned from being a student who will be in so much debt, it's that dreams really do come with a price. Hard work and commitment aren't enough anymore, it's how much money you can shell out or the number of years you're prepared to invest financially just to get a chance to make that dream plausible.
Who needs a significant other when your debt won't ever leave your side?
