After completing my first semester at the University of Michigan in 2001, I was assaulted and suffered a closed head / mild traumatic brain injury. It was recommended by my doctors that I continue with school – exercising my brain was the best chance I had at recovering. And so, I went right back to Michigan.
In my following semesters there, I struggled in my classes. I began to lose scholarships and turned more and more to student loans as time went by. After several years, I recovered, but I still had to pay for classes that I ended up not getting any credit for in the meantime – the university expunged classes I failed due to my circumstances. I tried four different schools to complete my degree, though for about a year and a half had given up and joined the workforce, then later returned to college and finally graduated from Wayne State University in 2009.
Today, my family and I can barely make ends meet. I have a student loan debt, with interest, of about $190,000. I obtained a judgment against my assailant for $250,000, but of course he’s unable to pay that amount, and I currently receive about $160 every quarter.
I’m 28 and can’t look forward to when I may ever be able to afford to move out of my parents’ house. They generously help as much as they can and had to file bankruptcy on their other debt to keep up with my loans – they are cosigners for my private loans. My dad retired ten years ago, but took on another job and goes garbage picking nearly every night to find metal and hidden treasures to sell.
When I took out the loans, I was focused on healing, gaining financial independence and moving forward from the assault. While going to school helped me recover, and was a necessary means to this end, the student loans have added insult to injury and severely prolonged my suffering and attachment to the horrific incident that caused my college career to take so much money and time from me and my family in the first place.
—-Approximate Original Amount Borrowed: $135,000 federal and private.
—-Approximate Current Balance: $190,000 federal and private ($170k private - $20k federal).
