Agree re not explaining how it advanced his career. I did something similar about 10y ago. Was burned out so skied all spring, hiked and went abroad during summer, did a small amount of contract dev then gradually decided it was time to get back to real work. Don't necessarily think it helped my career nor was I expecting it to. Had to explain to recruiters and companies the gap in my resume which not everyone could relate to ... but ... so what. I had a lot of fun.
Own your choices. You decided to go to college as opposed to not going. You decided to go to the college that you did in favors of others. You knew the cost of tuition and room and board. You knew how much you would have to borrow to afford the college you chose. You voluntarily borrowed the money that you did. You knew the amount of $ that you would owe. You knew the payment schedule. You had a reasonable idea of how much you wold earn given the degree and college that you chose. I feel a little sorry that you now have to make sacrifices to pay back the money you chose to borrow. Maybe you have to do without for some period of time while others you know don't.
I think this gets to public sector unions saying (or implying) "we won't vote for you unless you approve a certain amount of $ for X". The politicians then approve the $ as they'll be gone when the money runs out.
I've always felt that same way too. Lots of really smart people doing what they can to get more people to click on ads ... the source of 99% of their revenue. Seems a little sad. Same but less so with Google as at least they make $ from their cloud product ... whose development is funded by ad clicks.