On Living Far from Home

Today I participated in the Twitter Bomb for HR 4170, the Student Loan Forgiveness Act. I was pretty hardcore about it. I sent a personal tweet to every representative on the committee! Do you know what I said? I said that as two teachers saddled with student loan debt, we moved abroad to be able to afford to have a baby. And you know what?

It's true.

Don't get me wrong. I love living in Zurich. I'm insanely happy here. So it's not like I'm in exile or anything. But, if I'm perfectly honest, I never expected to like living here (let alone love it!) and one of the main reasons we came here was money. In Switzerland, unlike the United States, teachers are paid well. Another deciding factor was the excellent healthcare in Switzerland. Both things made having a baby here completely awesome. I want to do it again in a couple years!

Back in Portland, we were both working full-time as teachers in a private school, but with our loan payments, which were equal to our rent each month, we were living paycheck-to-paycheck and having a baby was out of the question. So we got a job as apartment managers and didn't have rent anymore! It was extra work on top of our full-time jobs, but it did make things easier. Even without rent, it still wouldn't have been possible to live off of one income so having a baby still seemed impossible. 

Then we started exploring our options. As Montessori teachers, each with a Masters in Education and  German (J) and French (me) language proficiency, we had a skill set that made us eligible for work visas abroad. We considered jobs in Germany, France and Switzerland and then we moved to Zurich. We had intended to wait a few years to start our family, but I had a burning case of baby fever and I could think of nothing else. I couldn't wait any longer than the requisite three months so that my semi-private health insurance would cover the birth nine months later. I had to be pregnant! And then I was. It's hard being away from family, but I am ridiculously grateful everyday for this insanely beautiful life I am living. We live in the most expensive city in the world and yet the life I've always wanted is more feasible here than in America, the land of dreams come true. 

So that is really why we came here. If the Student Loan Forgiveness Act goes through, it will mean good things for us. We don't want to stay here forever, but we also don't want to live paycheck-to-paycheck and have no retirement. If you'd like to participate in the Twitter Bomb, tweet with the hashtag #ListenToTheMillion and ask congress to hold hearings on HR 4170. Do you have a lot of student loan debt? Has it held you back in life?