When your career depends on people’s financial imprisonment.
Seeker: joins the call during his lunch break, sitting in his car outside the university financial aid office, rain streaking the windshield as he stares at a stack of loan applications on his passenger seat
Sifu, I can’t do this anymore.
voice cracking slightly
This morning I processed loans for a single mother going back to school for nursing. $47,000 for a program that might get her a $35,000-a-year job. The math doesn’t work, but I smiled and handed her the pen anyway.
Sifu: observes the weight in the seeker’s shoulders, the federal loan documents reflected in his glasses
Marcus.
long pause
Tell me about the last time you slept without calculating someone else’s financial future.
Seeker: nervous laugh, loosening his tie
Sleep? I dream about amortization tables. Wake up thinking about compound interest rates.
staring at the rain
I’ve been doing this for eight years. Thousands of students. Most of them have no idea what they’re signing.
Sifu: quiet for a moment
And you? When you signed your own papers, did you understand?
Seeker: shoulders sagging
I was twenty-two. They told me education was an investment. That my English degree would open doors.
bitter laugh
Twelve years later, I’m still paying for those doors. $73,000 left on my own loans. That’s why I can’t leave this job. The benefits, the loan forgiveness program…
Sifu: nods with deep understanding
Ah. The golden chains. You’ve become both the prisoner and the guard.
Seeker: something loosening in his chest
Exactly. I hate what I do, but I need what I do. Every month, I process applications knowing most of these kids will end up like me. Trapped.
Sifu: leaning forward slightly
Tell me about today’s nursing student. What did you see in her eyes?
Seeker: voice softening
Hope. Pure hope. She believes this degree will change her life. Give her family security.
pause
And maybe it will. But the debt… She’ll be paying until her daughter graduates high school.
Sifu: gentle but firm
You gave her rope, knowing it might become a noose. How does this sit in your heart?
Seeker: staring at his hands
Like poison. Every signature feels like I’m betraying someone who trusts me. But if I don’t process their loans, they can’t go to school. If they can’t go to school, they can’t improve their lives.
Sifu: quiet for a long moment
The river that promises to nourish the valley while slowly washing away its soil. At what point does help become harm?
Seeker: looking up sharply
Are you saying education is worthless?
Sifu: shakes head slowly
I’m asking: is debt-financed education serving the student, or the system? When the cure costs more than the disease, who benefits?
Seeker: defensive
But people need degrees to get good jobs. It’s how the world works now.
Sifu: raises an eyebrow
Is it? Or is it how we’ve been told the world works? Tell me, Marcus… who profits when everyone believes they need a $50,000 piece of paper?
Seeker: long pause, pieces clicking together
The schools. The lenders. The system.
voice growing stronger
Not the students. Never the students.
Sifu: nods
Now you begin to see. The system has convinced both sides that this transaction serves the borrower. But usury dressed in graduation robes is still usury.
Seeker: agitated
So what am I supposed to do? Tell students not to go to college? Crush their dreams?
Sifu: infinite patience
What would someone who truly served students do? Not someone serving a system, but someone serving human potential?
Seeker: thinking hard
They would… Tell the truth about job markets. About real earning potential. About alternatives.
gaining momentum
They would help students calculate real returns. Show them trades that pay better than some degrees. Apprenticeships. Certifications that don’t cost six figures.
Sifu: smiles warmly
The gardener who cares about the flowers doesn’t plant seeds in poisoned soil. They find better ground.
Seeker: voice cracking
But my own loans. My family’s health insurance. If I leave this job…
Sifu: leans forward with compassion
The prisoner who holds his own keys can unlock the door. But first, he must admit he’s been afraid of what lies beyond the cell.
Seeker: staring out at the university
I know things. I know which programs actually lead to jobs. Which schools give real value. I could help people navigate this differently.
Sifu: quiet encouragement
Go on.
Seeker: voice gaining strength
I could start a consulting practice. Help families understand the real costs. Show them alternatives. Maybe partner with trade schools, apprenticeship programs.
pause
Actually help people instead of feeding them to the machine.
Sifu: nodding
The healer who was once wounded makes the best medicine. Your scars become your wisdom. Your guilt becomes your purpose.
Seeker: looking at his loan documents with new eyes
But the risk… What if I can’t make enough to cover my own payments?
Sifo: gentle smile
What if you discover that serving truth pays better than serving lies? That people will pay for honest guidance in a world of deception?
Seeker: quiet for a moment
The nursing student today. If I had been honest with her, really honest… Maybe she would have looked at a two-year program instead. Or found a hospital that pays for training.
Sifu: nods
One honest conversation could have saved her twenty years of payments. That wisdom has value. Real value.
Seeker: something shifting in his posture
I’ve been an enabler. But I could become a protector instead.
Sifu: preparing to close
The guard who opens the prison gates serves both the prisoners and his own soul. Your knowledge of the system’s traps makes you the perfect guide away from them.
Seeker: already reaching for his phone
I’m going to start documenting everything. Real job placement rates. Actual salaries. Debt-to-income ratios by program.
voice filled with purpose
Time to tell the truth.
Sifu: as the session ends
Remember… the river that changes course to avoid poisoning the valley serves all life. Your conscience was never your enemy. It was your compass, pointing toward meaningful work.
The seeker sits in his car as the rain clears, looking at the financial aid office through new eyes. For the first time in years, he sees not a prison but a watchtower… a place where he learned to recognize the traps so he could teach others to avoid them. His phone buzzes with a text from the nursing student, thanking him for his help. Instead of the usual guilt, he feels something new: determination. Tomorrow, he will begin building bridges away from the debt machine instead of pathways into it. The enabler is becoming the liberator.