Student Loans: Just Do It

At eighteen I made myself a promise: I would avoid student loans at all costs. 

This is a story about broken promises.

After I graduated high school, I spent a year in Milan, Italy, on a scholarship from the Rotary Exchange Program.  To describe the experience in one word: completebliss.  I became an expert in eating risotto, learned how to decipher Gothic and Roman cathedrals, and amazingly, began to appreciate techno music.

But before I could blink, the year was over and I was back at my parents' house facing reality.

Within one week of arriving in America, I enrolled full-time at the community college and got a job at a bakery decorating cakes.  My plan was simple enough: I would work thirty hours a week while taking seventeen units.  That way, I wouldn't have to go take out loans and could be completely self-supported. 

And so reality commenced.  Three days a week, I woke up and worked from five in the morning until one in the afternoon, then race to school for class.  Around 6 p.m. I would rush home and study until I crashed around midnight.  Of course quick meals and errands were scattered throughout the day, but overall, I was constantly on the go.  I took classes during winter and summer so I could transfer on time, and thus this chaos lasted for two years.

But my story is not an unfamiliar tale.  Millions of American students have to work overtime to make ends meet.  The main party concerned: the middle class.  Those of us who don't qualify for government aid and don't have handouts from mommy and daddy to rely on have to foot the bill without an ounce of help.

Of course the argument can be made that scholarships are available.  But like any prize, scholarships can't be awarded to everyone.  Besides winning the lottery or inadvertently discovering the cure for cancer, the next best option is borrowing money.

Student loans have gained a certain stigma over the past decade because of the overall increase in tuition and decrease in available jobs for graduates.  Many students, including myself, are afraid of the unknown outcome of loans.  What if I can't find a job?  What if I don't graduate?  Will I be able to pay it off?  And in fear, they resort to trying to do it on their own, like I did.

When I finished junior college, I was debt-free and had a 4.0 GPA.  Do I consider my two years a success?  Far from it.  By the end of my whirlwind of school and work, I was exhausted and uninspired.  I also didn't have any spectacular college memories to account for.  My quality of life had dwindled.

Transferring to Sac State, I was forced to go on student loans.  I wanted to continue working and struggle with finances.  However, I needed my parents to cosign my loan agreement and they did on the condition that I didn't work.  It was either school and debt, or no school at all, so I hesitantly went with the former. 

Now, halfway through my first loan funded semester, I can say it was the best scholastic decision I was ever forced to make.  I can sleep in.  I can actually read my textbooks.  I can go out on the weekends.  Not having to work has completely changed my college experience for the better.

So I broke a promise that I made at 18.  Big deal; I'm much smarter now.  I'll admit the fear still lingers in my mind that I'll be plagued by student debt eons after I'm out of school.  I'll address that problem when I get to it, if I ever do.  Right now, I am going to kick back and do what students should do best: learn.