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Walden on Wheels: On the Open Road from Debt to Freedom
by Ken Ilgunas
Ken Ilgunas grew up in Buffalo, NY in a modest home in a safe suburban community where he didn't really feel challenged. He went to college because he wasn't quite sure what else to do. In this book, which is a memoir of his college years and early 20s, he writes about taking on over $30,000 in student debt as an undergrad and his efforts to get out from under it. He writes movingly of not really remembering signing on for the debt, and questions whether most 18 year olds know what they are getting into when taking these loans. He talks about working long hours as a cart herder at Home Depot while going to school, then one day he makes the decision to go to Alaska. He gets a job at a camp, at first cleaning motel rooms, and later working as a short-order cook, and eventually a guide and park ranger over a few summers, before and after graduating. By working at the camp, where he gets free room and board, he is able to apply most of his earnings to his debt. He challenges himself, both to work on paying down his debt, and also physically by hiking, mountain climbing, and taking part in a cross-country canoeing expedition one summer through Canada. Eventually he pays off the debt, then decides to go to grad school with the condition of taking on no new debt, so he lives stealthily on campus in his van to save expenses. He talks a lot about the soul-sucking jobs people take because they need to pay debt or to honor responsibilities. He opts for an interesting alternative lifestyle and voluntary simplicity and finds freedom and success through his unconventional choices. Ilgunas is an excellent writer and observer of contemporary life, and the book was a pleasure to read.