My Degree Cost Me More Than Money

I remember sitting in the financial aid office, staring at the numbers on the screen. The woman behind the desk smiled like she was offering me a gift, but all I saw was a lifetime of payments. I signed anyway. I was eighteen. I thought this was just what you did. I thought it would be worth it—four years, a diploma, a job that paid enough to make it all make sense. But the debt followed me everywhere. It’s in the background of every decision I make: what job I take, where I live, if I can afford to say yes to anything that isn’t work. Sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever feel free. Or if I just bought myself a more expensive kind of cage. #StudentDebt #CollegeReality #Burnout #Education