In this video I react to my very first debt-free journey video from 2020, and wow… I was such a baby. I was nervous, talking quietly, and honestly embarrassed to even say the number out loud. But it’s also really powerful to watch it back nearly five years later (end of 2025) and see how much has changed—especially because I wasn’t even running when I started this journey, and now I’ve run four marathons. Running is basically my whole personality now, which is not amazing for my wallet considering races and shoes, but we’re balancing it. I walk through how I ended up with over $229,000 in debt (mostly private student loans), how I didn’t fully grasp the reality until the bills hit, and how life/health issues made everything messier before I finally faced the music. I talk about the mindset shift that helped—actually listing every debt, learning to budget, and finding motivation through people online (like Asia Deng) and Dave Ramsey’s baby steps. My biggest takeaways: you can’t ignore it, you need a budget, refinancing can be a helpful tool (I’ve refinanced multiple times), and “gazelle intense” progress is real—but burnout is also real. If you’ve fallen off track, you can get back on.