Save My Career From Student Loans

Hi, my name is Champagne (yes, really), and I'm trying to save my legal career, which I depend on to live. It is under threat due to our country's predatory student loan system.

Today I got a call from Navient; my student loans are about to move from delinquent to default. In many states, if you default on your student loans, you can lose your law license, and I'm facing that at the end of the month. I have until then to pay the $3500 in arrears and make a payment of $430 to bring everything current - only then will they discuss modifying my monthly payment. I work two jobs despite my disability, trying to make ends meet and still help people, and one of those jobs requires my law license. There is no way to survive without it.

I took out 100K in student loans for college and law school. Over the years since, I have paid back approximately 96K. Those of you following the student loan crisis in the news will not be surprised when I say I still owe 100K. I know student loans have been part of the national discussion in the last few years, and I know my situation is not unique, but it is dire.

I came from a lower class family, but I worked hard and went to a good college to become a lawyer, to help people. When I graduated law school and passed the bar, I was awarded a fellowship at a nonprofit firm devoted to helping people living below the poverty line in Miami, Florida. I represented women getting out of prison, many of whom had complex legal needs that had nothing to do with criminal charges. At the end of my two-year fellowship, I decided to remain at the firm and continue helping our most vulnerable populations. I represented disabled people who needed their benefits, disabled kids who needed help with their education, the elderly who had been forgotten, and the homeless who are ignored or worse. I watched my clients become citizens, get off the streets, or start thriving in school. I stayed at that firm for ten years. Despite the meager pay, I paid my loans. I again worked an extra job for the first few years, as I'd done between undergraduate and law school to ensure my student loans were paid. (Unfortunately, my loans were not eligible for public service loan forgiveness - the guidelines for that are extremely narrow.)

In 2015 I had surgery, and because the surgery was botched, I had great difficulties recovering; eventually, I realized that if I didn't make healing my full-time job, I was never going to recover. I resigned from my beloved job and moved out of Florida, to Washington state, where I had community and support. I did everything I could to make sure my loans were paid. My life then imploded, and for awhile, I was living in my car or with friends. At that point I could not pay my loans anymore.

In late 2016 I was visiting my mom for the holidays, and she fell. Doctors discovered she was in very bad shape and she needed help, so I stayed there. I began doing temporary legal work, helping law firms prepare for large-scale litigation. The work was sporadic, and I became my ill mother's sole caretaker. I made student loan payments when it was feasible.

Fast forward, and now my health has deteriorated rapidly, with the onset of several autoimmune disorders and my body trying to turn muscle into bone. Working is hard, but I am trying. I am once again working two jobs, continuing the temporary work I'd been doing, and trying to get a new company off the ground. One devoted to helping people. I'm also training to be a guardian ad litem, a representative for children in dependency or family court- assistance I cannot give if I don't have a law license.

But now I need over $4,000 by the end of this month. Because if I lose my license to practice law, I will not be able to survive, let alone help others.

I've helped people in desperate situations all my life, and now I'm in one. I didn't want to do this fundraiser out of shame and fear and knowing that so many people are in similar or worse situations, but I have no choice, no way to support myself and my mother without my license; my disability rules out many jobs, and working from home has been the key to slowing the progression of my primary autoimmune disorder.

Like so many people, I was responsible. I did everything I could to pay my loans until I simply could not anymore. I am begging for help to fix a problem that affects so many of us in this country. Anything you can donate gives me hope. If you can't donate, please share. And write to your legislators about how student loans are devastating so many of us.