I was ashamed of my $100,000 debt. When I finally told my friends, they helped me come up with a plan.

The author felt ashamed of her debt as a single mother. Courtesy of Emma Dowd I came from a poor working-class family, so I always struggled with money. As a single mom, I found myself in $100,000 medical debt and felt ashamed. When I finally told my friends about my debt, they shared their own experiences with me. My deeply southern family raised me to never talk about money. We were poor, sometimes living in our car, and occasionally hungry. But we never said it out loud. Now, as a single mother of three kids with significant medical needs, I've worked several jobs to pay for their childcare and healthcare. Still, I ended up with $100,000 in debt. I was ashamed until I started talking about it with people in my life. My friends' reactions were surprising — and ultimately brought us closer.