Path to debt free #1

Hello,
So I am 22 with about $12,500 worth of debt. About $5000 is about to or has hit collections. I work 120 hours a pay period at about $34k a year.
Today I paid off a little over $500 in debt, which compared to my $12,500 seems minuscule. But it is a big day for me, because for the last year I have been financially unable to make ends meet let alone try to pay off my evergrowing debt.
So for me today is a big day! Today marks the day I am finally back on track.
When I turned 18 things were not easy, and I was helping my at the time GF make a life for herself (and she did :)! )
I had a lot of things I could not afford but needed, so I turned to credit cards to help get me through the tough times. Little did I know it would not only prolong but worsen the situation altogether. I continued to sign up for CCDs until I was about 19. It was then that I swore to myself I would get this debt handled and out of the way ASAP. I had moved 1000 miles away from home for better career opportunities in ND. The oil boom was well.... Booming. The pay was fantastic and things were going good despite hating the small town I live in. Then I lost the job that had held me together. I entered probably one of the worst depression episodes of my life. Sat in my apartment sulking for about 3 months not giving a damn about anything. Then I got a job I hated and started to get things back on track, soon after I quit and was unemployed for about 3 weeks. After getting a new job I loved but didnt pay very well I was unable to keep up on the bills and soon just stopped paying off debt altogether. I worked hard at this new job and worked my way up making small raises along the way. Then I finally got a big break and a major promotion. I was so happy for about two months until we had another GM quit. The new GM and AGM were horrible people and screwed me over on pay/hours/ and overall made me look bad by blaming me for stuff to cover their own asses. I soon after left that job and was unemployed for a month. After a month of me being gone and them having noone to blame both were fired from the company so I spoke to the new management and started from the bottom again took me about a month to get back to where I was from a years hard work before. I love my new management and they are training me to move up in the company, I am finally back to a decent job with a decent wage and can start making progress on my debt. This debt is the one thing in life holding me back from doing things I want to acheive in life! I cant afford to move on with life with the collections hitting me. I hope to have it all squared away in two years. At that point I will have 3 years experience in a profession I truely do love, and hopefully will be able to get a well paying job anywhere in the world!
I have big goals for myself, but I must correct past mistakes first.
Who cares? IDK but I just had to tell someone!

Thanks for reading, feel free to comment. Maybe a time in your life where you were struggling to make ends meet.
-PlepperGuy

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