My minimum private student loan payment ($80k bill) is equal to my rent in Everett even after consolidation. My friends' mortgages are less than my payments. I couldn't afford to live in Seattle anymore after my leases were bought up by development firms year after year (4 years in a row I had to pack up and move). As a project based consultant, my income is uncertain long term and has never been consistent enough for me to get out from under the financial burden of school. When I don't have work for months, I spend my earnings when I do work catching up on late payments. When I commuted by mass transit, it would take me an hour minimum (with multiple transfers) within city limits, longer when I moved out to Everett. It also cost me more than gas per month in my beater, I've never had an employer supplement commuter costs. Getting even an hour back to myself by SOV helped me regain sanity. I don't want anyone to feel bad for me but I've been in a cycle of poverty since my family immigrated to Seattle and I just haven't had ample changes in income to take on the rising cost of Seattle. I want transit to exist and for it to flourish, but I don't have deep enough pockets to sustain during the transition. Most of my colleagues don't know that I bus tables and do Amazon flex on Weekends just to feed myself. It's been like this since I graduated after the recession.