My Student Loans, A Neverending Story.

This is another one of those things that I really just need to "man-up" and deal with. My student loans.

I am one of the far-too-many Americans who are currently underemployed. I make a pithy amount of money. Terribly small considering the degree and amount of education I have. I hold two Bachelor's of Arts degrees in English and Anthropology and started my Master's of Arts degree in English a few years ago. Yes, I did drop out of the MA program, but it was simply to spare myself the oncoming mental breakdown that I saw myself crashing into. It was for the greater good of everyone in my life, really. And at that point, I had eradicated so many people that I probably should have just stuck it out and been friendless and alone with an MA.

As good as that sounds now, considering I am friendless and alone WITHOUT an MA, I think the impending mental breakdown would have been too much for me. But, the reality is this, I am edumacated. I have gottens my schooling. And for what, really?

I work as a receptionist at a national brokerage. This in no way fits my highly liberal arts education of English and Anthropology. I make way less money than the average college/university graduate does. The qualifications for my job only require that you be a high school graduate with reception experience. I could have gotten this job at 19. And yet, here I sit, at 27 with 2 college degrees. This seems wrong. And probably is. Thanks American recession!

The real point of this post, and I'm posting a lot today, is that my student loans are due. They actually WERE due 3 months ago. I had them in forbearance last year since I didn't make any money the year before. I didn't make 10,000 total in 2010. It was much less than that. Last year, my finances were only double what I made the year before, and the total was still less than 20,000 gross.

Well apparently, I am 1000 past due to one of my student loan lenders. At this point, I have 3. I know, it is my job to keep up with exactly when my student loans are due and take care of them accordingly, but dammit, I am a normal American. I forget things like this when I haven't paid them for over a year. And yes, I should have been paying at least something towards them, to knock the interest down a bit, but I have not had the extra money. And maybe I have. I don't know. I'm terrible with finances. That is one of my goals this year. To get a better handle on these little fiscal responsibilities.

I scheduled a payment of 100.00 to go through on the 18th, which serves to eradicate the 1000 I'm overdue and put my account into forbearance, once again, until March 2013. I need to start auto-paying 50.00 a month to this lender at least. It'll help get the principal down while the government (wonderful entity that they are) is paying my interest.

And I need to stop spending so much money on useless trinkets and booze. I feel like this has become my life. And books. I also like books.