This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sarah, a 25-year-old social-media coordinator from Texas. She asked to use only her first name for privacy reasons, but Insider has verified her identity and debt with documentation. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I was the first person in my family to get a bachelor's degree, and even though I got a generous scholarship to Baylor University, I wasn't prepared for how many other costs were associated with college besides tuition, like books. I thought that because I'd done well in high school and secured a scholarship, I would be financially set. But I ended up having to take out about $20,000 in loans for each year I was at Baylor.

I was initially going to major in communication science disorders to become a speech-language pathologist, but then I switched to journalism. My parents were worried that I wouldn't be able to find a well-paying job after I finished school, but that's what I wanted to study. 

When I got my first job out of college, I wasn't making much money

However, I was living at home, which is an immense privilege. Living at home meant my expenses were low — except for my student-loan payments. I was paying a significant amount of every paycheck to my student-loan balance, but when I checked the balance after a year, I saw that I hadn't even touched the principal — the original amount I borrowed. All the money I'd paid had gone toward the interest on the loans, and that really freaked me out. I remember thinking, How am I ever going to pay this off?

I ended up taking a second job as a contract worker to pay my loans. I had about $86,000 in loans when I left college, and I've paid off about $30,000 of that. I have $25,000 left in private loans and $26,000 left in public loans — or at least I did, until President Biden announced that he was forgiving $10,000 per borrower for people making under $125,000 and $20,000 per borrower for Pell grant recipients. With this new policy in place, I should only have $6,000 left in my public loans, which is a relief. 

I still feel so stuck

It's such a small drop in the bucket for people like me, and even though I'm really glad there's some kind of relief, there's still so much pressure.

Now that I'm less burdened by my own student-loan payments, I'm turning my attention to my younger siblings, who are 22 and 21, and their loans. I want to help them pay the interest on their loans so they don't have to structure their young adulthood around it like I did. My sister just graduated with her bachelor's in speech pathology and my brother wants to work in animation.

I feel like my early 20s have been entirely swallowed by student-loan payments

I haven't moved out of my parents' house, traveled, or even started to think about buying a house or having my own family. I wasn't able to really enjoy being young and going out and having fun with my friends like other people my age did.

I can't go back and change that. What I can do is help my siblings so their lives are different from mine. I don't want them to be in their 60s and still worrying about their loans. I want them to have the freedom to explore their lives and not be held back by student-loan payments.

I don't know if my sister understands the reality of loans yet. She does plan to work at a public school, which could qualify her for loan forgiveness. My brother is laser-focused on graduating and getting into his chosen field, so I think student debt is the last thing on his mind right now.

I know they're both grateful for my help and I know my parents are worried because I'm so exhausted all the time from picking up more assignments and contracts to try to pay down their interest. It's a lot to juggle, but it's worth it. I think about people who have paid more than what they initially took out in loans but haven't even touched the principal loan amount because of ballooning interest, and that scares me more than exhausting myself. I don't want that kind of stress for my siblings.

Looking back, I feel like I got tricked

I was only 18 —  young and naive — when I signed on for all those loans. I didn't know what I was getting into. I thought I would graduate, get a well-paying job, and pay them back. I didn't expect complications — like the first year after college, where I got seriously sick and couldn't work — or that so much of my money would go toward interest and not even the loan itself.

I hope there are more changes to come with regards to student debt. I don't want other people to have to put their lives on pause like I did. Even if one day I paid off all my loans and 30 days later, all student loans were forgiven, I would still be happy. I don't want other people to suffer like I have and I want that money to go into the economy and into people's lives. I want people to be able to use that money to travel, buy a house, or start a family. I hate to think of it just going to loan companies, where it doesn't help anybody.

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