In my last year of grad school, I naively took out a $20,000 private loan (with a 9 percent interest rate) to make the film that would satisfy the requirements for my Master of Fine Arts in Film Directing.  Little did I know, this one loan would become the bane of my financial existence.

In just 3 short years, it has swollen from a managable $20,000 loan to an unruly $28,000 DEBT.  The maximum term for a Hardship Forbearance on this loan is a mere 12 months.  That means these folks are “kind” enough to allow me NOT to pay while still accumulating interest for an extra year (and this is how 20k turns in 28k overnight).

I just got a letter stating that my request for a year of payment slacking and interest stacking has been denied, because I already used it up.  Really? March 07 to March 08?  I can’t remember what was going in my life back then,  but to exhaust my only respite from this loan, I must have been thinking the same thing I’m thinking now… things can’t possibly get any worse than this, financially speaking…

Unofficially laid off from my comfortable TV job, unemployed for 6 months, underemployed in fashion for 2 weeks, underemployed but entertained freaked out by perv boss and convinced by family to resign as spa coordinator after only 5 days.  Stacks of bills getting higher, credit score getting lower…

… another day in the life of the broke new me.