How it started

GARETH SAY…

The beginning is always a good place to start but I wasn’t around at the beginning of this story so I’ll have to jump straight into the middle with some facts…

I have just given a girl I met 5 months ago on the internet $33,500, agreed to move into her mum’s back room, give her all my salary for six months and just live on $28 a day.

Am I mental? No I’m Gareth and sometimes you’ll do anything for love (please don’t sue me Meatloaf – I can’t afford it).

You are probably wondering how this all came about. So here is a quick summary of how I ended up in this pickle.

I have fallen in love with a girl called Amy. She is the most fun and inspiring person I have ever encountered. She makes me laugh so much I want to pee myself.

Quite simply she is The One.

However today I found out that she owes $180,000 in student loans. Holy fucking shit! I’d know since we met that she had loans but I didn’t realise how much of a mountain they were. I started having an inkling that I was in for a shock when we were at a party. Amy was discussing with a friend who much she has to pay each month to the loan companies. When she said the figure - $1500 (and that was just the interest) the other woman’s jaw dropped.

I didn’t think much of it for a few days, afterall I’m English and this culture of paying through the nose for education is not something I am used to (I was one of the last years to get a full grant in the UK to go to college) so I didn’t really know if the amount she was paying each month was a lot or a little – the only thing I had to go on was the dropping of her friend’s jaw (never a good sign). So I decide to just come out and ask her.

“Er Amy ... so er … how much do you owe in student loans?”

“It’s a lot.”

“How much? More than $50,000?”

“More like $180,000.”

I can’t exactly remember what I said next but I’m pretty sure it was prefaced with a stunned silence.

Holy fucking shit.