Debt Has Changed the Meaning of Ordinary Life

Dear Delyara, Fruit is not just fruit. Shoes are not just shoes. A school trip is not just a school trip. A car noise is not just a car noise. Nothing ordinary stays ordinary when debt is sitting underneath life translating everything into threat. That changes the emotional world of a family. And it changes me. I am quicker to worry, quicker to cut, quicker to hear “need” as pressure. I hate that shift. I hate how debt has made even simple parts of family life feel slightly unsafe in my body. I am not just tired of the numbers. I am tired of what the numbers have done to the emotional meaning of everything else.