Since College My Student Loan Debt Has Nearly Doubled

In 1990, I went back to college full time with the goal of obtaining a Bachelor of Arts Degree with a Double Major in Accounting and English. I had planned on obtaining work in the field of Accounting, as I was raised in a family that stressed the importance of being practical, and it seemed that this was a growing industry with the potential for employment opportunities. While English was my favorite subject in school, I did not believe that I had the patience to teach, and it seemed that there were few "practical" job opportunities provided by a degree in this field.

I left college in my senior year without my degree, after having children and surviving cancer. I lacked 5 classes of having my degree, but could no longer afford to remain out of the work force full time and support my family and pay my then astronomical medical bills. When I left, I had a little over $13,000 in student loan debt.

There are various programs available for those who have trouble paying their student loans. Over the years I suffered several other debilitating illnesses and had long stretches of unemployment. I would make payments for a couple of years and then something would always happen so that I would need to seek either a deferment or forbearance. While there are programs to delay repayment so that a borrower does not default, these programs do not pay for the accumulated interest that grows on the outstanding student loans. Today, after the years of accumulated interest charges, I have a little under $23,000 in outstanding student loan debt. Sadly, I am unemployed, again, and have no idea when I will obtain new employment to begin repayment.

Over the years, I have had many people advise me to file for bankruptcy, and while this would erase my medical debt, it would not erase the student loan debt. Also, to me there is something wrong with not paying my creditors, even if it takes the rest of my life to pay them off bit by bit, which may indeed be what happens.

Was using debt to go to college worth it, some might ask? I learned many things about myself, others and the world when I was in college and it is not an experience I would trade. Ironically, it has been my writing skills and my "impractical" love of English, rather than my accounting skills, that has been keeping a roof over my head.