Student loan, my biggest regret?

As an excited 20-year-old who finished Senior General Secondary Education after five hard years of work, I now stand before one of the biggest decisions of my life: “What will I study?” After carefully filtering through what I like and what interests me, I found the “right fit.” The question was: where and how would I pay for this? That led me to one solution: student loans.

Looking back, I haven’t had many regrets in my life, but having a student loan is my biggest regret so far. Now, I will tell you why it is my biggest regret.

“Debt: A sum of money that is owed or due."

“Loan: A borrowed thing, especially a sum of money expected to be paid back with interest.”

Nowadays, who doesn’t have debt? Most people are in debt because of the school system. So am I! Other people get into debt because of different loans, such as credit cards and bad spending habits. Here, I am speaking only about student loan debt.

My Journey

It was exciting; I finished school and wanted to attend college. Sadly, I needed to borrow money to attend; otherwise, I couldn’t go because my parents didn’t have enough money to support my studies. Some people see it as an opportunity they don’t have, and that might be true, but is it worth getting a degree that doesn’t guarantee a job? In my opinion, no!

After getting the degree, you still need to find a job. Some people decide to pursue a master’s degree or a PhD. After all those “thousands” spent on degrees, they still can’t get a job. Why? Is it because they weren’t good students? No. It is because there is too much competition for the same positions. They have the knowledge but lack the experience, and so on.

My degree

I started my studies in 2012, majoring in life sciences. Life science is the scientific study of living organisms. There are many branches in life science, but I studied to work in the laboratory. My study is HLO (Higher Laboratory Education).

For my study, I could choose between biology and chemistry. I chose Biology; there were 5 categories: Pathology, animal experimentation, Clinical Chemistry, molecular biology, and microbiology. II specialized in molecular biology but couldn’t couldn't get a job because I lacked experience.

If I look at my degree, it's important. Still, some of this knowledge you can also learn at work, but I think nowadays they don't do this anymore.

What Schools Fail to Teach

What schools fail to teach us is how to be different in society, or how to use our talents and passions to make a living from them. Instead, they keep telling us and showing us that we need the next degree to find a good job in the future, and only then are we set for life.

I’m not saying that getting a degree or going to school is bad, absolutely not. There are professions, such as surgery, where degrees are essential. What I don’t agree with is that school is presented as the only way to make it in society. It may still be the right choice for some, but imagine a world in which more people used their talents and creativity. Instead, we are shaped into this slave mentality that tells us we need to go to school; otherwise, we can’t be successful.

Think about it: you get that degree, have a student loan to pay back, work a job you might not even like, spend 40 hours a week working, and live paycheck to paycheck. Do you feel successful? Is that what success means? Is that what life is supposed to look like until retirement?

I’m sorry, but I do not want that. Do you?

Our System

Since birth, we have been programmed to believe in the school system. During our early years, we spend most of our time in school until we are around 24 years old.

There was a lady who once told me that only with a degree can you make it in life. Yet nobody tells you the reality, or at least it is not often discussed. School can sometimes feel like a system designed to keep people under control, preventing them from developing their talents and using them to make a living while being their true selves. Instead, many of us end up working until the day we die.

I finished school and, honestly, I didn’t enjoy it very much. It was a study that gave me many options, but in the end, the options were too broad. I could go everywhere but nowhere at the same time. For every choice I had, I needed to think about why I was making it, and sometimes the only answer was, “It’s interesting.”

Did I really want to know more about it or see a future in it? Not really, but I needed to get a job. That’s why I got a degree, so it had to work. But not only did I need the degree, but I also needed experience before getting the job. Yet I was fresh out of college — what experience was I actually expected to have?

I don’t regret going to college and not getting a job afterward. My biggest regret is the debt. I have 15 years to repay what I borrowed in less than five years. It only gets worse because, by the time you start paying it off, so much interest has built up.

Yes, just like that. Now I need to get a job so I can live a normal life and pay for the degree I earned, for a job that many of us may never even work in for long, or may never find at all, because we are considered to lack the required work experience or knowledge.

How to Be Wise

Now that I’m on the other side, I wish I had explored other options. I wish I had known better. Be wise! That is why I am writing this blog.

One option is to get a job while studying. It may require a lot of effort, but in the long run, it might be worth it. If you already have a loan, use it to get started and then try to find work. Some people have managed to do that. I still haven’t met anyone who is happy about the school debt they have to repay.

Also, try to finish your studies as quickly as possible.

Another thing I would advise against is doing what I did. Besides regretting my debt, I also regret focusing full-time on school and not using that time to travel. I didn’t even have a hobby; I was too busy trying to become “successful in the future.”

Am I successful now? No. Will I become successful because of my degree years later? Who knows?

One day, if I have children and I have the means to help pay for part of their degree because they want one, I would still encourage them to get a job to cover the rest. Or I will start saving for them as soon as they are born.

Conclusion

If you want to get a degree, do it. But don’t focus only on school. When you focus only on school, the things they teach you become the only skills you have. Try to develop a hobby you enjoy and invest time in it. Travel. See the world.

I wish I had followed some of the advice I am giving now. This is my story of how student loans became my biggest regret.

Don’t forget to use your God-given talents alongside your degree, if you want one. We all have unique skills, and we are capable of creating many beautiful things.

Be blessed and stay blessed.