Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Student Loans and Suicide

I found an article. The opposition has the nerve to say that suicide cases with student loan debtors are personal and they should seek help. Here's the thing that separates student loans from most crisis...

Losing a home to foreclosure? Sucks to lose a home, and it sucks to move in with family...but move...find a new place to live.

Divorce or break-up? A broken heart and wounded soul are bad, but life goes on. It always does.

Credit card debt? Learn to live within your means and declare bankruptcy. In 7 years, you'll have a clean slate and hopefully, a better sense of spending habits.

Student Loans...there is no escape. NO ESCAPE. Sure, the attitude for a new burrower in college is, "I'll pay it back." But life never goes according to plan, you can lose your career, you can lose everything you own, you can find yourself barely scraping by...and Sallie Mae will always go, "Where's our money?"
I lost a lot during the start of the Recession, I was unfortunately evicted and even on my way out of my home, Sallie Mae kept hounding me for their payment. It is then I realized just how cruel this company is. Then I read other horror stories. You lose your world and Sallie Mae still comes to finish what's left. And with that Parent PLUS Loan, where parents co-sign, that's just a fancy way of Sallie Mae taking your family hostage. Even if you die by any means, they'll still go on to collect money.

And the opposition says it's personal. Growing up, I've always been told there will always be light at the end of the tunnel, that when life closes a door, another one opens...and in most cases, that's true.

With Sallie Mae and with Student Loan Debt...there is no light. There are no more doors. I cannot go in my life because of this shackle. I want to give back to this world so much, but I can't. Instead, I live in the shadows and off the grid. I can't have Myspace or a Facebook anymore. I haven't filled out a forwarding address at the post office in years. I'm afraid to update the address on my driver's license in fear that I'll be found. I'll admit, I'm barely hanging on...and I'm hiding. I feel like I'm living like a criminal just because I had a dream of going to college.
I'd give anything to just have a foreclosure or credit card debt and just have that as my biggest problem.
Let me restate what I said earlier...NO ESCAPE. How can the average debtor not think about ending it all?

I'm sick of this though. Why does Sallie Mae get to hold all of the cards and continue to screw the youth of America.

Any opposition out there who dares to call me a slacker, a deadbeat, a crybaby...You all better pray that the Credit Card corporations do not get this kind of unlimited authority that Sallie Mae has...because I do not wish this inescapable debt on anyone.

Other than that...join the fight.

2 comments:

  1. I hope you realize that I am an advocate for student loan debtors, and I wrote the piece you referenced in this post. The point of my article is exactly what you're arguing - it's not simply a personal problem, it's SYSTEMIC and SOCIOLOGICAL problem that makes it so problematic. So, I certainly hope you are not suggesting I am somehow the 'opposition,' because that is definitely not the case.

    -Cryn Johannsen
    Founder and Exec. Dir. of All Education Matters, Inc.

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  2. Somebody had opened up to me that student loans needs to be paired with a collateral for you to get the loan approval, is that true? This would be my first time applying for a student loan so I still don't have some kind of knowledge with regards to its loan process.

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