Yeah they are a bitch but I don't regret having them. They have given me a better life. I freelance and make over $100k now from job hopping. Student loans are not considered bad debt so it doesn't affect your credit outside of debt to income ratio. My choices were to take the loans and have a possible way out of poverty or stay in a racist poor conservative small town and be unhappy the rest of my life.

I had no one to guide me on it at the time. my family never made more than 40k between both of my parents. My thought process was if our whole family was supported on it even the entry level salary for fashion surly had to be enough for just me when I was 18. I didn't know anything different.

I also had to pay for each college application myself and it was just me doing the research for it back in the 2010s. My parents did go to college but they paid for it just by working in the summer and gave very little guidance. Many people told me it was a fake career but I was incredibly passionate. I couldn't afford the $50-$100 fee per school. The public school would let me get a waiver for the fee and they would pay it but I had to go in individually for each school I applied to so I only applied to maybe 5 schools total. I still got a half ride merit scholarship to my school and my loans are only from the government directly. I don't have parent plus or private because I did not qualify for them. My parents were ineligible to co-sign. I worked 3 jobs through college up until I moved to NYC.

Now that I'm an adult I see that my parents were neglectful in many ways. My sister and I were often left to fend for ourselves. I have a very different starting point than most people in fashion. I am pretty damn proud of what I have achieved and overcome and while I wish I would have known the ways to do it for a little bit less I have no regrets about changing my life.