The Loan Ranger

I was fortunate enough to have parents who were always able to put up enough for my education. This fact was driven all the more home when I got the chance to talk to a cousin the other day. His family migrated to the United States about in the ‘70s and he is now just working as an associate professor in one of the top universities there. He teaches students majoring in Comparative Literature.

Anyway, as with most migrants, they went through pretty rough times during their first years there and since the day he started high school, he'd made up his mind that he’d give his folks a break and find a way to get an "education on loan", so to speak. He was bent on getting a degree without having to break his parents' backs.

He applied for several student and college loans, held down multiple jobs while he was studying, and did everything short of stealing to get him through university. He’s still making payments on one of his student loans (took on another loan for to start the payments, matter of fact), but says that while it’s still isn’t easy street for him, there’s a quiet and proud satisfaction knowing he went most of the way on his own steam.