Today I ended another chapter in my life. After 6 very long years, I finally paid off my student loan. Now, this wasn't just any student loan, it was a lesson learned loan. It all started back in 1999, while stationed in Virginia. I was 20 years old and I had a year left on my Navy contract. Being in the Navy for 4 years and nothing to show for it but plenty short stories from my women chasing adventures and relationship scares, I decided to make up for lost time by enrolling in a technical college.
I can still remember the student advisor to this day. He was a young Australian guy -say, early 30's. This guy sold me a dream of becoming successful outside of the military and conned me into signing a student loan contract, all within the first 30 minutes of the interview. "You’re just signing this contract as a “just incase” measure -you know, just incase the Navy doesn't pay for the classes." Ignorant me, at the time, thinking the contract will never become active because the military takes care of their people, right? Plus, one of my reasons for enlisting was because they promised to pay for my education.
So, now I’m about 6 classes into the curriculum, when I suddenly come under orders to Japan. I withdrew from the school. The Navy kept their end of the deal by paying for the classes I attended. Now, I’m on the next thing smoking to the land of bullet trains, gadgets and sushi.
About 5 months of my new life go by, when I started receiving "Don't let me catch your ass on the streets" notices from the loan company. Remember that "smooth talking" Australian guy I spoke about earlier? Well, much to my dismay, as soon as I signed the contract he sent it off to the loan company. I was delinquent on payments starting from my very first class.
I must say, Trying to jump through financial hoops from overseas, is a very difficult trick. All of the late night "international" phone calls and prolong follow-ups, due to deployments to other countries, just made matters worse and placed me more behind on payments. Eventually, I chalked it up to a lost and began making payments.
So, after about 6 years, I finally settled my debt and I’m able to walk the streets again. All and all, I must say, it was a very expensive lesson that I was disturbingly reminded of monthly basis, via bank statements.
So, if there is anything that I can say, to the reader, about my story that can help them out, in life, is: Read the fine print, obtain as much knowledge as you can about the game before you play and try to avoid smooth talkers. . .