#14 The Episode that Almost Wasn’t

For more than a week now, I’ve struggled with finishing this episode (available on the following platforms: YouTube, Apple, Spotify, Google Play). Why, you might ask? Put simply, it’s hard to admit that you have $243,746.89 in student loan debt. Even with the recent Biden-Harris Student Loan Debt Relief, I haven’t hit the magical 120 payments in order to receive loan forgiveness, despite having initially started repaying my loans in 1999 when I was a high school teacher until I reentered school to obtain my Master’s degree in 2002. Then I started anew in 2009, while I was still trying to finish my doctoral program (completed in 2012) and working in education in different capacities; one position was with a company that wasn't a qualified public service employer. Though the Biden-Harris actions have angered and upset many, it is truly the best way for people like me who single-handedly put themselves through school, raised children to be upstanding productive, wage earning citizens to actually reap the benefits of our own hard work and efforts. This episode is my personal story and struggle with my student loans and how limited I’ve been in helping my own children avoid the same student loan pitfall because I had so much in loans. I hope it can illuminate the conversation in a way that other accounts and/or arguments have not. (Warning: In order to finish it, I gave up on editing it because the more I tried, the more I found that I avoided doing it, so this episode is what it is.)