86 Days: Bankruptcy Essay

Yes, I'm cheating. I don't feel well, and I might actually be going crazy this time. I didn't want to post. So Jessica-From-The-Past is bailing me out. This is an old essay I wrote for a class in high school that I hated: Financial Literacy. My teacher and my classmates were so full of it, that I just couldn't take it seriously. That's why this little bankruptcy essay may seem a little ridiculously dramatic. I was BSing my way through the whole thing. But it IS rather entertaining to read.

By the way, I got an A+ on this paper.

Dusk! As the red light of the setting sun wafts in through Anthony’s expensive satin curtains there is a knock at the door, and our hero’s heart is struck with fear. He rises slowly from his armchair and inches toward the front door, peering out through the peephole. When he sees the familiar man with the sharp business suit and awful salmon-colored tie, a briefcase in his left hand, Anthony staggers back from the door, his hand at his throat. The debt collector has come a callin’.

Anthony collapses in his chair, deciding to pretend he isn’t home. He thinks of what has caused this disaster, what has brought him to the edge of bankruptcy. The divorce, he realizes, and buying a house he couldn’t afford. He also figures that he shouldn’t have gotten all those credit cards. He has six, and he’s behind on payments.

He is not alone in this despair, however. Six credit cards is actually average for an American, and his peers – Generation X – make up 35% of those who file for bankruptcy. He knows many of them. In his mind’s eye he sees Tammy Wright, an old high school friend who filed for bankruptcy after a flood destroyed her home. He sees Roger Davies, dying of skin cancer, who filed bankruptcy when he could no longer afford to pay his medical bills. And the Tippits, his next door neighbors, who filed for bankruptcy after they both lost their jobs in the same month.

As the banging on the door continues, a rebellious tear courses down his cheek. He knows what he has to do next, but the consequences are so severe. If he files a Chapter 7, it will wipe almost all of his debt away. But they might repossess his home, his car, and the black mark will remain on his credit for the next decade. A Chapter 13 would at least allow him to salvage some credit and possessions, but it would take so much work! He’d have to come up with a plan that the courts would accept, and then he’d have to try to pay enough to fulfill that plan, paying 25% of the debt in five years. Who’s to say that was even possible?

Anthony wishes he had done something to prevent this. He could have cut back on his luxuries instead of getting into more debt by buying that motorcycle. He probably also should have paid more than just the minimum monthly payments instead of spending the money on his beloved boating trips. But all of this regret was too little too late. Anthony steeled himself and got up to answer the door.

* * *

It has been a week, and Anthony now stands before the judge, who glares at him with cold eyes. Thanks to the new bankruptcy law, Anthony has been barred from filing a Chapter 7 because he has above-average income. Despite the counseling he’s been required to go to, Anthony still speaks with a lump in his throat. Surrounded by financial wolves, feeling terribly alone, Anthony says, “I’m here to file for bankruptcy.”

And the dying cry of independence is finally silenced.