WEll, while we're all here and despondent about our situations, lets also try to encourage ourselves each other. So. Pretend that you're standing in front of the mirror or whatever, and encourage. Say something positive about your situation with no cavaeats. (kinda I'm smart I'm good lookin, and darnit people like me, except totally serious)
I'll start.
Hey, you graduated! That's more than 60% of the world has accomplished. YOu've got the skills and the talent to do what you trained to do and it does not matter what anyone else thinks!
I found Robert's web site last year, and it probably saved my life. I did not see much point in trying anymore. I had studied so hard, finished a BA in psych and then spent 4 years on a grad degree in accounting (I wanted to be a CPA to earn the big bucks and pay back all the STUDENT LOANS I took out to do it). I graduated 2006 with a GPA of 3.6 in STRAIGHT ACCOUNTING! 4 years worth. 62 semester units. Part time, with a child. Well, things don't always go the way you expect. I was laid off a year ago. I turn 50 in one month. RETIREMENT PLANNING??? ha ha
Anyway, I can't give my whole story now, but the payments I am supposed to be making, I do not make, and they total $180,000 to Sallie Mae (plus a couple other loans to other places). Now that I know you all are out there in the same boat I am, I know that I am not alone. I requested IBR materials from Sallie Mae a year ago, never got them. I requested again a month ago, never got it.
Thank you, everyone responding to this blog. Thank you, lyredragon, for being encouraging! That is the hardest part, staying positive. I do believe that things will change, only not soon enough for me. My plan is basically to retire in Mexico ASAP. I heard I can get my (garnished) Social Security there. cheap living. Two years of Spanish in high school. There are American companies there who might hire me so I could get a work visa. I do not expect to ever own anything of value, ie real estate, tax refunds, full paycheck...
but hey, I'm smart!
Someone please help us
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Robert-Applebaum/54158215949
Here is our live link to our Facebook forum. Please join us. We also have a link to a petition that we started. We believe we are stronger in numbers. Come and join us.
Regardless of what other people think I am fabulous, and all of you are too. Having an article in USA Today that included me (name, picture, story & debt amount) was a double edged sword. Great I go my story out.....Great, dumb folks with dumb comments was like running into a concrete wall. You know what? Screw it, they don't know me, they do NOT know what is really going on with the student loan industry, do not know what it is like to watch a loan balance triple while working 40 hours a week at a job in a call center that only requires having a GED. They can call me a dead beat, say I should just me a stripper, should not have been allowed to 'breed' (i didn't realize that humans reproducing was referred to as 'breeding') and say my daughter is better off in government assisted daycare than at home with a dead beat mother. That's fine. If I received free daycare that would be fine too!
All of this nonsense is fine because I know I will raise my beautiful daughter to be more of a person than they could ever dream of. I know that I value people, their feelings and what a real human being is worth more than they could pray to understand. I know that I have a good reason for being here and the light in my heart is used to help and inspire other people, not hurt and insult others for my own ridiculous hate-inspired self pleasure. I know that I, even if it is in just a small way, make the world a better place. I am now starting to know that Sallie Mae can try and destroy my financial future but she will never destroy my QUALITY of life and that is what is the most important thing in the end.
I also know that I will allow myself to get mad, not sad, about my situation. The madder I get the louder I yell. The louder I yell the more people will listen and the more who listen the more people who begin to ask. I love when people ask me what this is about. I have yet to have someone, to my face, pose a good argument for why I am wrong.
We are strong, we are smart and we will be ok!!!!
I have been so down and out lately, that all of my recent pictures have a forced smile. I look so old! Long term unemployment has left me with bags under my eyes and a very snarky view on life.
I am glad I am not cynical though. I believe that I understand the value of everything I have been through, as well as the cost of everything. It's just that right now, the cost of everything is really being shoved in my face by everyone, while the value is being underestimated by everyone.
Sorry everyone, I choose not to be cynical about it. I know the boundless potential of my own self. I choose to know that I can do anything I am skilled, talented, and trained to do, and I am uniquely qualified to do it well. In an era of realists, I refuse to abandon my dreams.
My dreams are not unrealistic, and I understand the challenges that my dreams present. To the employers who have snubbed me over the years, I want you all to know that when the personality tests you give result in a milquetoast, lying, underperforming, dependent, lot of cubicle cows, and all of the brilliance and innovation in your fields is gone, you have only yourselves to blame.
To Gallup, especially, yes, it is possible to be both a team player and a leader, it is possible as a manager to both uplift your team members and to demand their adherance to project goals, and it is possible to be both competitive and perfection driven and also be content with being comfortable being on par with other teams and people. It is also possible *not* to be bothered by negativity and to still be positive force in the workplace. Your adherance to multiple choice questions without giving us either a "all/none of the above" choice, or a chance to explain ourselves is discriminatory and wrong. I am sorry for the day you decided that your pre-employment screening was good enough to be foisted upon people seeking employment. I am even sorrier for the day you decided it was good enough to be sold to other companies who abuse it and your mission statement in their misguided, lazy attempts to get out of meeting people face to face. I could have been damn good at the job you offered, but you'll never know. You never even looked at my resume before you rejected me out of hand.
I admit that I can be angry. There's no hiding that. I have every rigt to be angry when I have done everything right, and I am still rebuffed by a society that apparently does not value skilled professionals enough to pay them what they need to be paid. You might call me arrogant, but you know, I earned the right to be arrogant. I worked my ass off to gain the skills I needed. Don't you dare tell me to suck it up and get an unskilled job!
To the HR departments of the world, there is a special place in hell for people who act like god, judging who is worthy and who is not. When you get to the place of judgement, and your book is opened, I hope you get to see every single person you drove to suicide, depression, debt, and despondency because you rejected them based upon a personality inventory rather than the strength of their skills. You don't know what your company needs. I have heard stories from several companies of managers who got to see the candidates' resumes before taking the tests, and I have seen the frustrated agony of the people you are supposed to be working for when you reject those desired, highly skilled applicants based upon some arbitrary test, preventing them form even getting to the interview process. I have been on the candidate side numerous times; so many now that my mind is numbed at the mere thought of having to sit through another.
But I am here to uplift myself and others. Guess what, my fellows and peers in debt and unemployment; despite what the HR goons say, you are wonderful and uniquely qualified. You know what you can do. You dictate to yourself your true worth. Also, you and I can laugh a little, because even if we die, society will have to pay for their mistakes in not giving us a fair chance. In the end, the ills of society will come back to haunt them, and we will be long gone beyond the need for cubicles, computers, and careers.
So smile, laugh, and enjoy yourself. Without a job, you an enjoy the sunlight. At least that is free. Finally, debt collectors may hold a mortgage on your flesh, but they can never foreclose on your soul.