About Me
Lisa Gonzales
My name is Lisa. I grew up and live in Southern California. I have no children but love to spoil Jenks, my bossy cat, and Maggie, my mom’s dog. I love being an aunt to my nephew, nieces, and two sweet great-nieces.
I am an ovarian cancer survivor. I was one of the lucky ones who caught it in the early stages. I was 45 when I was diagnosed, had surgery, and went through chemotherapy. It changed how I looked at the world and how I wanted to live in it.
The most important lesson cancer taught me was to do the things I want to do now.
If you wait, you might miss out.
I spent the last 10 years checking items off my bucket list, including traveling, Disney vacations, and a Bachelor’s degree. And worrying a lot less about what people think.
I am a minimalist by necessity because I rent an 88 sq ft garage apartment. I dreamed about owning a tiny home, so my current place gives me a taste of what that would be like. It isn’t always easy, and I had to do a lot of editing to get my stuff to fit. But I found my life is less stressful with less clutter, and my wallet is happier, too.
Mid-Life Crisis
I am also a textbook case for a mid-life crisis study. In January 2022, I decided at 53 to quit my 90K job and go back to college to finish my degree and become a librarian. Then…
Wham!
Life threw me a curveball.
I had to pause my new career goals to help care for my grandfather.
Two years later, I have a Bachelor’s degree. But I need to pay off $10,000 in student loan debt while working part-time and also caring for my grandfather.
Family First
I am so lucky to have my grandfather in my life still. We will be celebrating his 100th birthday next month. His mind is sharp as a tack, but he needs help with daily living and can not live alone. Helping my mother care for him has changed my life in so many ways. Yet I wouldn’t change the time we’ve spent together for anything in the world. I would not have been able to help if I was still working full-time. I moved into his garage apartment to help with night and morning tasks. I doubt my mother would have chosen to keep him home if I hadn’t been able to help. I’m not sure my grandpa would still be here if he’d gone into a home. He hated it while he was convalescing there. It’s funny how life works sometimes.
Life-long Learner
Anyway, I have always loved learning and reading. I loved college this time around, too. I could kick myself for not loving it when I was younger. If I won the lottery, I would spend the rest of my days as a student. I think one of the reasons I loved it so much was because my concentration included a lot of sociology and anthropology. Part of my mid-life crisis was realizing I wanted to do more with my career than just help my company succeed. I wanted to make a difference. Sociology helped me see why inequalities occur and how I might help others overcome those challenges. Libraries play a key part in this because of the access they provide to books, the internet, and other services. The fact that I also love books felt like becoming a librarian would be a good fit for me.
I still plan to get a Masters degree and pursue it. But, I want to pay off the $10K I still owe on my loans before accumulating more debt.
New Writer Ahead
I also discovered when I was back in school that I love writing too. I hated writing the last time and would dread the thought of a 4-page paper. But, this time, I had so much to say that if the assignment was 10-12 pages, I had to try and trim it down from 14 or 15 pages. It wasn’t easy.
I miss writing, so I thought I would give Medium a try.
I will be writing about personal finance, budgeting, life, pets, and caregiving. Personal finance and budgeting are passions of mine. I wish I had learned about them earlier to save me from incurring a mountain of debt and dropping out of college. I will also be writing about my current debt-free journey with a part-time job and family responsibilities. $10,000 in student loans is not a lot compared to most student loan debt, but I broke a promise to myself to never have debt again. I do not regret finishing my degree, but I regret the loans. I hope that I can help others prevent some of the mistakes I’ve made by sharing them.
I hope you’ll follow along.
Thanks for reading!
Lisa
