The Weight of Debt.

So four years ago, almost to the day, I realized that this... was me:

 

How much was in that bag exactly? $65, 601. In student loan debt. That's right. I owed various government and banking agencies SIXTY-FIVE THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED AND ONE DOLLARS. Now, I live in Canada, where instead of dollar bills, we have this fun little metal coin called a "loonie". Now one loonie weighs approximately 6.27grams, which means that if I were to measure out my debt in loonies, I would end up with a sack of coins weighing a little over 400KGs. In case you are a visual learner, that would look something like this:

That's right. I googled that shit. And yes, there is INDEED a website where you can convert any random weight into any random animal or household item. You now have Friday night plans. You're welcome.

Anyway, at the time of this profound realization, I was days away from finishing my second degree, unemployed, working three days a week in a non-paying student placement, and supporting half of what had suddenly become possibly Toronto's most expensive dog*. 

See, a few days before, PrincessSmellyButt, my high-maintenance yuppie puppy, got hit by a car. It was a beautiful spring day and we had gone on a long adventure to a new park in the city. After a couple of hours of hiking, we sat down for a light picnic and made the mistake of letting her off-leash in what we thought was a fairly enclosed area. Enter a couple of urban deer, and our enthusiastic puppy became a very fast, very deaf, deer-chasing machine. I'm sure in her head, she was a superhero doing the world some great justice, but really whole scene looked more like this:

"I GO SO FAST MOM!
 I PLAYING WITH GIANT SQUIRREL FRIEND!

FUCK. NO.

Long story short, PrincessSmellyButt followed the deer all the way through the park to where it opened onto a busy road and was promptly hit by a taxi. Through the assistance of a terribly sensible and proactive lesbian couple, we ended up at an emergency vet office where, after much crying, were told that our dog had incredibly suffered no internal bleeding and no significant injuries, save a broken jaw and a few loose teeth. A veterinary dentist was consulted, the surgery booked, and a few days later, we left the emergency pet hospital with our newly-mended puppy and a whopping $4000 vet bill. I'm not sure if I cried more when we checked her into the vet or when we paid that bill to check her out . Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we got ripped off; that dog had more specialists and received better medical care at that facility than I have ever received as a patient at a human hospital. But, since poor students don't have $4000 just lying around, I tapped into the last existing pot of money I had access to: my student line of credit.

So as a result of all that hoopla above, I needed to look seriously at my financial health, and more importantly, I had to come up with a plan to deal with all those kangaroos, er, I mean debt. 

To find out how RamenGirl kicked debt's butt, read my next blog post (up soon)!

(*) = impending tangent of indeterminate length. You've been warned.