First, I want to start this off by saying I'm not one of those “typical Millennials” that thinks the world owes me. I also don't truly believe this will actually work but how does the saying go? “You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.” So, here I am taking my shot. I'm looking for a miracle or maybe I'm looking to see if this social experiment actually works. Now I'm not poor by any means, but I'm also not rich and am in serious need of help. Now I know a million dollars is a lot of money and I'll admit I don't actually need that much for myself. I've always been the one to take care of my sister and her family and I'm in no position to do so. She's in a loveless, semi-abusive marriage she has no way out of. Now here I am, broke, about to be evicted, unable to pay for my car, unable to pay for groceries and no way to help my sister out. On top of that my parents have been amazing helping as much as they can but they can't do it anymore. Now where does this million-dollar miracle go?

On to my sob story. I'm part of the age group where college was a MUST. I went to college right out of high school and realized I was not at the maturity level to do it. I promised myself I'd return when I hit 21 and I did exactly that. Now why is this a sob story. Well, many people have hoped for relief for student loans and I'm no different. The difference is that I don't expect help to pay off the debt I accrued. What I want is for people to open their minds to a different narrative to be a bit more understanding. Now when I first went to college, I was told I didn't qualify for financial aid because I was living with my parents. They told me I was their dependent, but I worked full-time and was removed from their taxes well before hand. Then a year goes by, and the rules changed making me an independent but yet I made too much to qualify for financial aid. Now here I am entering the crisis that is student loan debt. I needed the loans to pay for college because I was told college is necessary to go anywhere in life. I took the max allowed because no one explained the intricacies of loan debt to a naïve 21-year-old. Now what you may not know is you must be full-time to get the loan. You may also not know all classes are available every semester or they may not be available when a full-time worker can fit them into their schedule. So, I had to take numerous courses over my course workload in order to stay full-time but they were meaningless classes that went no where towards my degree. I finally graduate with my AAS in Construction / Architectural Technology. After graduation, I decide to pursue my BS degree in Information Technology. I did this online, which was a HUGE mistake. I graduated, barely, but the school I chose was more for professionals who needed the paper rather than newbies trying to get the paper to get the job. Now I know what you're thinking, these were my decisions, and I should stand by them. I know many people placed in the same position are probably thriving. Maybe they were able to find a job in their field. I, however, was not one of them. So starts my decline into financial ruin.

The loans paid for my life, and I took full advantage of that. Life kept throwing hard balls at me and I kept trying to fix them with band-aid after band-aid, not realizing the extent of the hole I had dug myself. On top of all this I never asked for help during COVID, and I probably should've. Never stopped paying rent so I didn't have to take another loan even though I couldn't be evicted. Where does that leave me. I have student loans for nearly 145K, personal loans of 60K, a car for 24K, maxed out credit cards of 49K. My total monthly bills are about 10K and that's not including any bills my partner has. We make decent money and we're still about to be homeless, carless and hungry.

There are probably a million different people out there that need a miracle more than I and I have no issue paying this forward once my life is on track. I've always wanted to help those in need, but my life is in need too. This is my virtual panhandling, my cry for help, my putting good juju out into the universe hoping for a miracle.