I graduated in 2015 with over 33,000 dollars in student debt. That was nearly five years ago…and in 2020 I had $32,000 in debt left to pay. Thanks to the high interest rates on my loans, I was paying off nothing for years.
At the beginning of 2020, my brother Christopher tagged me in an Instagram post done by Scholly. The post was about a Natural Light 1 Million Dollar Student Loan Scholarship that was being offered and he told me to apply. So I did. The scholarship was for $40,000 and would be given out to 25 winners to help pay off their student debt.
There was no question in my mind I needed to apply because who the heck wouldn’t want to pay off their student debt? It would be a dream come true. I quickly headed to the online site and a few weeks later I was accepted into round 2 of the scholarship contest. This portion of the contest included creating a video on why you deserve the scholarship. The question Natural Light asked was “What student debt has done to my life and what I would do if I was debt-free.” For me…this was easy to answer.
On February 19th, 2020 I submitted my entry video. This was the video I made with the help of two of my best friends Mark and Bacari. I sat for days prior planning out everything I wanted to do. One of the main things I wanted to include was how my family and my mother influenced my education. I wanted to show off my creativity, what going to college did for me, and why my student debt was holding me back. When I was done, my video brought an overwhelming amount of emotion to me. (It still does) but this was my final product below.
On March 3rd, I posted my video on Facebook, Twitter, and IG TV. I wanted anyone and everyone to see my story. I waited months and months (pretty much on edge) praying every night that my dream would come true. I prayed every night before I went to sleep that the universe would honor my hard work. My creativity, my strength, and my determination would be rewarded and I just had to keep my faith.
In April my life changed. I never…and I mean never check my hidden Facebook messages…but randomly this day I did. I don’t know why (maybe God told me too) but I went on my Facebook page and checked to see if I had anything important in this spam message section. To my shock, I had a message from the scholarship organization that I had made it to the third round of the contest and needed to reply to an email. I was happy, nervous, shaking with joy; was this happening? I sent an email and then scheduled a ZOOM call for the final round.
Well, during that ZOOM call God answered my prayers. If the title didn’t give it away, my words now sure will. I was one of the 25 winners of the 2020 Natural Light 1 Million Dollar Student Loan Payoff. Yes, me. I didn’t believe it, I cried, I thought it wasn’t real…but it all was. You can see my 5-seconds of fame below.
Thanks to Natural Light and the support of my family, friends, and strangers, I was able to pay off my student loan. I thought I would never feel what it’s like to be debt-free, to be let out of the chains that are loan interest, but I was.
I wanted to share my story about winning to show others that good things can happen to anyone if you set your mind to it. When I share with people my story a lot of them reply how lucky I am. And don’t get me wrong, I do feel lucky but I also feel like I earned it. I sat for days thinking about how I wanted to share my story(in less than two minutes) and my determination helped me to achieve my dream. I set my mind to conquering the impossible and God guided me to a path most never travel on. I am so thankful to everyone that helped me on this journey and I always remind myself of how proud my mother would be. I hope my story motivates others through the years to go for what they want in life and have faith while doing so. And with that, I shall crack a Natural Light and sign off by saying…thank you again for taking care of my past.
With Love,
Lex Paige
