Student debt behaves unlike any other consumer obligation, and almost every mistake borrowers make follows from assuming otherwise. This article explains the four ways federal student loans differ from every other debt: they rarely expire, they are collected without a lawsuit, they are hard to discharge in bankruptcy, and they carry repayment and forgiveness options no other lender offers. It walks through the difference between federal and private loans, which determines everything else, and through what default actually triggers. It follows two fictional borrowers with similar balances and very different outcomes. The practical thesis is that the borrower who calls before missing a payment has options the borrower who calls afterward has lost.