It felt like when you call a plumber to fix your sink and they end up charging you an arm and a leg for it. Here I was, a graduate, with no job, and ten’s of thousands of dollars in student loan debt because of it. Thank you Uncle Sam!
I’m the type of person that really despises being in debt. So seeing that I hadn’t even attained a full-time worthwhile job and yet I was waste deep in the biggest dept I’ve ever had, kind of numbed me to the whole YAY! YOU GRADUATE COLLEGE bit.
I mean even IF I had a job it would have been disappointing. Mostly because my debt was MORE than whatever my first years salary would have ever been. Except of course if I was working for Wall Street or something. Those big boys move around some heavy money bags after graduation. But no, I was just an engineer. Albeit a chemical engineer (one of the highest paid engineering fields), but I was still just an engineer without a job.
Years later, now that I have a job, I think back on whether I would have sold a body part just to pay off my student loans. The thought crossed my mind as I read this crazy article the other day. The headline? (Read the story below)
Parent Offers Body Parts On Craigslist To Pay Off Child’s Student LoansA Boston parent said he or she is willing to sell body parts to pay off his or her children’s school debt.
The ad, “Do You Need A Live Cadaver? Take My Body,” was posted in the “jobs wanted” section of Boston Craigslist earlier this week.
The poster offered up his or her body for anything “legal or medically experimental” to raise money to pay off their children’s student loan debt.
“If you eliminate my children’s student loans, I will give you my life!” the poster wrote.The poster said they were 5 feet 10 inches tall, 200 pounds and have all their “organs in working order.”
“Take my blood, take my plasma. Drill into my brain, my leg, my arm. Tap my heart, my liver, my kidney,” the poster writes, adding, “I am very very serious.”
The poster, who did not include their name, exact location or gender, said the children’s student loans total $200,000. “
*The story was reported by The Boston Channel.
Could you? Would you EVER consider selling a body part to pay off your student loans or your kids student loans?I don’t know if I could honestly. I mean, student loans are definitely a BIG headache to deal with, legalized loan sharking… But my life would never be threatened by a student loan. You can’t foreclose on my mind. You could enslave me and make me work with shackles on for the better part of my life, but I could still vacation somewhere nice, right? If I could manage to save a penny here and there though. You could even cut into my American dream of owning a house. Not to mention that owning a house is an entirely different beast of a debt, but it’s one I wouldn’t mind having as long as I could make the monthly tributes… uhhhh… I mean payments!
Are there people out there like me? I’m sure there are, practically most college educated Americans are in the same boat. So I’ve decided to make March 2011, the month of Student Loans. I’ll be making available a number of informational resources that’ll help those with student loans and those thinking about taking out student loans. I plan on posting some information directly to the blog, but a significant amount resources will be sent by direct email depending on the size of the resource. If you’d like to get on the list of those who will receive this information, just scroll to the top of the page and sign up for the newsletter. I already have a lot of material talking about student loans actually. Everything from obliterating them completely without paying a single cent to going to college for free without even having to take out any student loans.
I hope you’ll enjoy the series of emails. Feel free to email me if you’d like me to blog about something as well. I’m always up for suggestions and hearing from my friends. If you happen to come across any interesting articles or news pieces, I’d love it if you’d share your find.
What Happens If You Don't Pay Off Your Student Loans?