Student life, I know for a fact is one of the most exciting parts of
life that most of us may wish to relive. The fun, the independence,
the sudden shouldering of responsibility, the freedom, the parties…

Studying up to late hours and hard work put in to build a promising
future are all part of the same game. Students living away from
home especially, have great experiences to go through.

But along with this new found freedom comes responsibility and
that’s something you cannot opt out of (unless you’re like me).

I dropped out of college in my junior year and got a job working on
a ship traveling around the world… Italy, France, Spain, Holland,
Beirut…

The adventure was intoxicating.

But working 7 days a week doing hard, manual labor on a ship
(with no women on board) gets old faster than one
might imagine.

No family, no friends - just a bunch of drunken sailors,
…no television, and no land because you’re out at sea
in rocky waters most of the time.

After you’ve seen the new cities several times each and hung out
at the same bars over and over, some of the magic disappears.

You get lonely and homesick.

And then reality sinks in… 30 more years of this crap!

So I decided to go back to school and finish college.
But this time without the financial support of my parents.

They took advantage of the situation declaring me independent
and cutting off funding. I was on my own!

So I did as most other students do, took out student loans and
credit card loans. I worked part time and funded the shortfalls
with my credit cards.

I rented an apartment paying basic electricity, gas and store bills.
I had to pay my credit card bills and had several other regular
expenses that were necessities and some simple enjoyments.

I graduated, got a decent job and started living as a responsible
adult. All was going well until I left my job as a computer
programmer in freezing cold Boston, Mass. and decided to
relocate to the Grand Bahama Island in the Bahamas.

My bachelor degree was in Architecture and I found work with
a fellow classmate in sunny Nassau Bahamas… Ah- The good life.
Sun and Fun.

I rented a beachfront bungalow and found work on
Paradise Island.

Life was good… Until one day I found out that I needed
working papers to continue working and could not apply
for them while in the Bahamas.

The Bahamians know how to take care of their own.

I would have to fly back home to New York and apply for the
working papers there. Once they receive my application,
The Bahamians would then run an ad in the local newspaper
for the work.

If they could not find any qualified Bahamiams for the position,
only then would they grant me the working papers.

Thus began my saga of my living off credit cards, defaulting on
loans and other financial disasters which have haunted me
my entire adult life.

And that is why I am writing this blog.

So that you can avoid the mistakes that I have made and
have taken me decades to correct.

Next time - Student Loan Misadventures!

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 16th, 2006 at 1:06 am and is filed under Student Loan Debt Consolidation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.