Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Lundi au Jeudi, 28-31 Janvier 2013: Trouble Back in the States

This has been a pretty uneventful week in general with all things French. I had been waiting for some news from my brother back in the states but I guess my cousin never passed on my info. I finally got some junk mail from my brother's e-mail address so I was able to write him. Rambo wrote me back and said that one of my loans was never approved for deferment and that my parents had to hire a lawyer to settle it. You can't even imagine the stress I went through. I was wrong to assume that the letter I got from the loan originator would be official. I was originally approved for in-school deferment but then that approval was rescinded because the university I was attending was not U.S. affiliated. I never got that memo. The letter never made it to me even though the loan company has my french address.

I panicked. I was worried about my family and all of the financial troubles they're going through already because of the economy and also because my 17 year old sister is pregnant. I never meant to leave my family in such distress. I'm living the dream right now and look what I did to them. It doesn't matter whether it was an accident or not, it was still caused by me. I decided I would have to take responsibility for my actions. 

It was a bad idea for me to go to school out of state and for two bachelors degrees. Seriously, a Bachelor of Science in Pre-Medicine and a Bachelor of Arts in Biology is seriously worth jack and shit in this day and age. Everyone has the same degrees. Not only am I not using my degrees but I also racked up over $100K in student loans--private and federal. The only reason why I'm even thinking of going back to the states is to pay of all of my student debt. There is no job like the one I have at the bar, and I've never had a job that has paid better, not even doing research for a big pharmaceutical company like Merck. I'm sure I've mentioned this before. Hopefully, I can pay back 100% of my student loans in 2 years time. But if not, 75% is sufficient and I can work on the other 25% when I'm back and settled in France. 

I fought against the idea of visiting Andréa today because I was so depressed. I was worried about leaving him and leaving my french family without an au pair. He finally convinced me to go to Marseille before I changed my mind again. I spent a little time with him and he kept on trying to figure out what was wrong but I wouldn't divulge. I didn't want to think about it while I was with him. 

I went out to my car after an hour with Andréa and called the loan company to see what I could do to keep my loan from defaulting. It had been over 3 months since they had heard from me and they didn't not find the supplemental documents that they had needed to complete my deferment. I spent about an hour on the phone with them--trying to help them get all of the pieces together--telling them which e-mail addresses or fax numbers I sent the documents to. They told me to call them back a few hours later when the department officials would be in to review everything. They would be the ones to approve or reject the deferment.

I returned to Andréa's apartment, even more stressed than before because I had just found out that this was the last day I could do anything to save my loan, my credit, and my parents' credit. I finally broke and told him that I had to leave France early but that I would try to stay through his birthday in March. He started crying and you all know how difficult it is for me when he's upset. He just looked so sad. I didn't know what to do. I made an effort to comfort him. I tried to explain that I didn't want to leave but that I had to, without giving all of the information away. 

Around 17h00, I had to leave as I normally do to pick up the children from school. I hated leaving Andréa in that state but I can't screw up anymore responsibilities. On my way back to Aix though I received a phone call from the loan company. They looked deep within their files, gathered all of the necessary information, got the senior representatives together, reviewed the documents, discussed, and finally approved my deferment--THREE MONTHS LATER. Better late than never I guess. The approval is also retroactive so it nullifies any negative credit information or interest accrued.

I am so blessed. Thank you whatever powers are watching over me! I called Andréa immediately to let him in on the good news. I'm checking up on the rest of my loans just in case. Just because you aren't getting the memo doesn't mean something isn't happening in the background! Stay on top of it all and you won't suffer the way I did. Yahhhllaaaaaaaa!!!!

1 comment:

  1. You should read my post about my student loans that I wrote a week ago... UGH!

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