The last year of school. Fees for bar review classes. Job hunt expenses. Day to day expenses. All that stuff went to my VISA card. The numbers kept going up and all I could do was make barely above minimum payments. Before law school I was one of those who routinely paid off my credit card bills every month. The amount of credit debt skyrocketing upward was disheartening. Every new bill gave me a headache. Between the amount I borrowed for student loans and VISA the amount of debt I had was mind-boggling to me. Worse of all there was no way to get rid of it. Student loans can't be discharged by bankruptcy. The changes made to the bankruptcy laws made it more difficult to discharge the
paltry by comparison amount on my VISA card. Despite all my intelligence, despite all my creative history, despite my outside the box reality I had run out of hope after years of frustration.
Yet a weak bit of hope appeared, the job in Small Town. I knew the commute would be tiring. I knew the job wouldn't fit my personality much less my dreams. I knew the job would be frustrating, but it was a job that paid money. Any port in a storm, eh? Yet my paychecks didn't seem to go far enough. Gas prices going over $4.00 per gallon last summer, electric bills, rent, football tickets, insurance premiums, that bitch Sallie Mae, trying to put something in a savings account, and all the normal stuff in our lives. Yet I paid as much as I could towards my VISA. The monthly statement started to slowly go down. I remember when it got under $10,000. I practically wept. Perhaps some good luck had finally come my way? Perhaps this really could work? Perhaps I could slowly climb my way out of the dark financial hole I was in? Between a large tax refund and using most of my savings account the check I wrote last month to VISA felt like I fired a bazooka at the debt.
Tonight I write the last check to VISA to erase my debt to them. What was once an impossible mountain of debt is now gone. I don't feel happy, but I am relieved, so incredibly relieved. I still hate the job in Small Town, I still hate the commute, I still hate the impossible situations I'm placed in, but the job has done the one thing I wanted it to do. It got rid of that damned VISA bill! I hope to move onto other opportunities in 9 to 12 months, but for now I'm glad I got something useful out of this job and I'm thankful for it.
