The stories within the patterns

“I got the notification, and then they gave me back my money because I paid after the loans had been discharged. The whole thing was, ‘Are you serious? What’s going on?’ Then I got a check in the mail. It was very strange.”

“If my student loans were forgiven today, I would feel comfortable taking a job that paid less. I would also be thinking about retiring at 65 rather than 70 or 72. I would feel more hopeful. I would feel lighter.”

“I retired in December 2022, which was early retirement for me—partially possible because my loans were forgiven in 2021.”

“Maybe I’ll have a 401(k). Maybe I can send my daughter to college debt-free. It’s longevity and security, because my finances have been month to month for so long.”

“I would be over the moon if I got forgiveness. I’m going toward that path, but there’s still resistance because you never know what’s going to change under each administration. I’d be ecstatic if I got it.”

“My forgiveness will be a weight lifted—a weight we didn’t even realize we were carrying. It will be a relief, and maybe even a sense of accomplishment: a lot of people didn’t navigate the system, but we did.”

“It’s a really big stressor, increasing daily anxiety. I saw there has been another change to the repayment plan. Do I have to sign up for it? Do I qualify? Is it going to help my payments? There are a million questions.”

“It’s always there. It’s ever present. Decisions I want to make about my career and my life are hamstrung by not knowing how much I’m going to have to pay, when it’s going to change, or under what circumstances.”

“I work best when there is a clear understanding of what I need to do and it’s articulated in layperson’s terms. Because there isn’t that, it causes a lot of distress.”

“I’ve called and tried to talk to people, and nobody seems to be able to tell me. So I’ve given up and just make my payments every month—just staying in this one place and doing what I need to do.”

“The rules of the game change on a whim, with a different breeze. Here I am with one year to get through on these payments, and then I’m out of this. The 12 payments left are the light at the end of the tunnel.”

“I think uncertainty is the key word—even more than the amounts, just not knowing. Knowing that the unknowing is done purposefully sows antipathy and apathy in me, and I know I’m not the only one.”

“Owning a home was one of my top adulting dreams. I think I would have gotten there much sooner had it not been for student loan debt and repayment.”

“We originally talked about having two children, but now that we have one, we don’t really see us affording a second. I will probably revisit that if my student loans get forgiven. It has impacted future planning.”

“There have been multiple times when my balance was enough to buy a house, or close to it. I can’t pay off my house. I surely can’t pay off that.”

“I grew up with a pretty big family. I’ve seen it, and I just don’t want to touch that life. There are a bunch of reasons, but the biggest piece is financial—and the biggest financial reason is student loan debt.”

“We got a later start on having a child, but one of the big reasons we decided to have only one was financial precarity. We would have loved to have more kids. Financial reasons definitely shaped us having one child.”

“The money we’ve saved for things is now going toward this buyback next year. There’s a little strife around that—putting away funds for our own kids’ college while still paying off my own loans.”

“I was very careful not to change jobs. Even when I had offers, I turned them down because I didn’t want to risk anything changing with my payment. That has certainly impacted my whole career trajectory.”

“My rent is going up again another year, but working in nonprofit, my salary is not going up another year. So there is more budgeting—trying to figure out daily living and then incorporating student loan payments.”

“There’s burnout from the job itself, but then there’s the burnout of knowing that you feel stuck. If I wasn’t going for loan forgiveness, I would probably try a different career, but financially I don’t have another option.”

“I’ve never considered not working in the nonprofit or public-service sector. Because I was pursuing PSLF, I wasn’t even going to consider a job outside public service. Certainly that means it has impacted my career choice.”

“I have always chosen to work in a place that would qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. It has always complicated where I could work and meant not having long periods between jobs, so I could keep accumulating those 120 payments.”

“As much as I wanted that job, I had to turn it down. I was eight and a half years in. I told them, ‘I love your job and I want to work here, and I’ll apply in 22 months. But I can’t do that right now.’”

“I’ll get a document that says some nightmare scenario, and then I’ll call and three hours later find out the letter was a mistake. You get a different message based on who you talk to—mixed messaging that’s frequently inaccurate and hard to get a hold of.”

“I went to an annual cadence of affirmation with the government to prove my qualifying payments. I ran into early qualification questions or disagreements, and then reverted to an annual audit process to increase transparency.”

“It wasn’t until I could look and see they had counted everything except the last eight months—and that they just needed to process the document—that I could see I was going to be there.”

“My loan servicer has changed at least three times in the last 10 years. I get incorrect information in emails, conflicting information, and new information every couple of months that goes back on what they said would happen. The system is not functioning.”

“One time I had my phone on hold for 12 hours and never got anyone. I left it on speakerphone all day. It was really frustrating not to have access to the servicers we didn’t choose to begin with.”

“I’ve tried to recertify my income for the last two years unsuccessfully because they just won’t process the paperwork. If I can make it to 10 years, if they process my paperwork, and if I can scrape up enough for buyback, then I might be free.”

“We signed promissory notes at the beginning, and y’all can just do what y’all want.”

“Up until November 2024, I had complete trust because everything was going smoothly. Then everything just kind of went downhill from there.”

“I have very little trust, but I have faith and high hopes that it’s still going to work out for me—that I will get my student loans forgiven.”

“I don’t think we have another choice. I don’t have trust that there will be a system for my daughter to borrow money in a fair way. I don’t have trust that the money is being used for the reasons of access anymore.”

“I feel like I had an agreement with the government that was written into law before I started college. I couldn’t sign a contract with a company and have them say, ‘Just kidding, we’re changing the contract.’ I’ve made all these life plans, and now my contract is being changed.”

“My trust is very low. I don’t trust the U.S. Department of Education right now. I think they’re very incompetent. They don’t know what they’re doing, and they’re doing more harm than anything.”

“Absolutely, wholeheartedly. I was first-generation. I don’t know what I would have done were it not for college. College was, without a doubt, worth it in my situation.”

“Was it worth going? Yes. Was it worth $200,000? Heck no. It was worth going. That’s why I think it’s the affordability problem that needs to be figured out.”

“It was not worth it. Getting that PhD through that college at that time in my life was a mistake. I should never have done it.”

“Yes, it was. I work in this industry, so I believe in the power of it. Especially in my graduate programs, I experienced a lot of growth—emotionally and knowledge-wise. I still think it was worth it, but things are very up in the air.”

“I would say yes and no. Yes, because some opportunities I had, I wouldn’t have gotten without a degree. No, because of all the debt that I’m in.”

“I aspired to get a PhD at one point, and that’s not happening. I will never incur debt like that for myself again. There’s not a job, lifestyle, or career worth it.”