The Student Debt Disease

It's not every day that I feel the suffocating threat of student loans looming over me. The anxiety and worry that accompanies my student debt comes and goes, like a sickness.

Today I feel it, and I know I can't be alone. I am one of thousands of graduates that finished college this Spring with weary eyes turned to the future.

But what does the future hold for graduates like me?

There are no real immediate job opportunities for students of applied linguistics here in the states, especially when the largest focus of my degree was the application of applied linguistics to teaching English as a foreign language.

I, however, chose my degree because of my love for language - not for teaching. I also have a partner here in the states that I am not too keen on abandoning in order to go teach abroad.

So what is left?

Administrative/clerical work? I did that all through college. Why not now?

Retail? I did that through high school.

Food industry?

...

Are these the things that my expensive-ass degree prepared me for?

Am I being spoiled when I say that I don't want to do those things? That I don't want to struggle and grovel just to pay back a debt that should be a right? I want to do something I love and that isn't laced with the desire to commit suicide.

I want to enjoy this one, single life that I get - not to be worked to death in this busy little empire of ants.

I have seen article after article about how student loan debt is a burden on the economy - about how the student loan market is going to crash.

I have seen my future in these articles - student loan default highest among 40-somethings.

So this is my desperate plea to the internet:

Occupy student debt!

Forgive student loan debt!

Reform the public education system!

Education is a right, not a privilege! Help make it universal.

I know not all the recent grads out there are like me. Some of them had jobs lined up as soon as they got their diplomas! Some of them. But not me.

So what do I do to pass the time?

Well, for now, I blog! And read.

I woke up this morning and grabbed You Are STILL Being Lied To: The NEW Disinformation Guide to Media Distortion, Historical Whitewashes and Cultural Myths (Disinformation Guides) to assist me in my morning poop routine. My partner bought it at the store yesterday and though I insisted it was too depressing to read at the time, I managed to find something that intrigues me a lot in it today. There is a submission in the book by a man named Michael A. Cremo called "Forbidden Archaeology" in which he discusses his book Forbidden Archaeology and opposition that it and works like it have come up against in the scientific community. In particular, his work suggests extreme human antiquity. His proposals are backed by archaeological evidence as well as a belief in the The Vedas.

This is not the first time I have heard or read of someone talking about the Vedas as evidence for ancient human civilizations beyond what we could imagine today, so I think I will start reading them soon! The link above seems like it might be a pretty good option, but if anyone has any suggestions I would love to be pointed in the right direction!

Cremo also proposes that instead of human evolution, we have been devolving from a more spiritual creature into the beasts we are today. I can dig it. Shit's fucked up. However, his pitch is a little more spiritual than I prefer, so for now I will stick to impartially informing myself through reading and research.

Another thing I did this morning was update my other brand new blog, miamdreams. It's just a little blog I intend to keep up for as long as I can stand. The plan is to wake up every morning and if I can remember what I dreamt about, then I will come make a little post about it and then go on about my business. So check it out some time ^^ Maybe you will enjoy the batshit craziness my brain cooks up at night.

Also! Don't forget to play with the poll at the top of the page. The prompt is, "Now you've graduated. How hopeful is the future?"

a tiny ass intro

Just a couple of short months ago I graduated from college (university, for you non-American English speakers out there).

Since, I have traveled the country and come full circle back to the place where I started: Atlanta, Georgia.

Now, I am just like most other recent college graduates: broke, and struggling to find a job ... or at least a job that says, hey! I can totally see why I got a degree to do this.

Unfortunately, like a lot of other recent grads out there, my degree probably has about the same marketability as a bachelor's in philosophy. I graduated with a degree in Applied Linguistics. Half of you are probably about to google "what the hell is applied linguistics," while the rest of you are exclaiming, "Why don't you go teach English?!?!" To which I reply, "Shhh...all in good time."

So? What the hell now?

This blog will be used to chronicle my days of post-graduation boredom, shenanigans, and job-seeking. In this day and age when, for the first time, my generation has dim hopes for the future ... why not blog about it?!

Stay tuned for more updates, and share your post-graduation experiences by emailing me at hello.ello.blogs@gmail.com!

Also, participate in the poll up top~! The prompt is, "Now you've graduated. How hopeful is the future?" I'll obsess over its results until I find a way to make them useful.