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The Incredibly Harsh Stigma Of Law School Debt

What's been the worst part of having to grapple with unemployment and pay off student loans?

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I turn 30 next month. I’m a licensed attorney currently working two jobs and trying to get my own firm off of the ground, and I have yet to make $40,000 in any one year. I owe somewhere between $230,000 and my firstborn child in student loans. I moved home a year and a half ago because the work wasn’t coming consistently enough and, when it did, it wasn’t paying well enough to pay student loans and live independently. I refused to turn 30 living in my parents’ basement, so I’m finally moving out again now, but I can only afford to do it because I have two part-time jobs.

The worst part of post-grad life is the unrealistic stigma that it’s your own fault, that there is no excuse. Everyone knows the economy sucks, the job market is still low, and salaries are declining, but somehow people still manage to wrangle this smug yet disappointed look that screams, “I’m better than you. Why don’t you work harder? You’re just lazy” when they find out you are unemployed or underemployed. That is the worst part.

— An anonymous attorney who submitted this tale to BuzzFeed after being asked to share a story about the worst part of having to “grappl[e] with unemployment and paying off student loans.”

(Do you have a similar story? Please feel free to share it with us.)

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