After Covid completely upended life on college campuses, students and recent graduates are encountering a new challenge: student loans.

Federal student loan payments are resuming this week, ending the three-year pause enacted through policies in 2020 to ease financial burdens when the Covid pandemic rattled the economy and countless people’s livelihoods.

Millions of college students and graduates — including Black women, who carry the highest burden of student debt — held on to the hope of President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, which the Supreme Court struck down in June. Yet, Biden is aiming to push policies that would provide relief for loan borrowers, with his announcement Wednesday approving $9 billion in student loan forgiveness for 125,000 borrowers.

Still, as payments resume, several Black students and graduates told NBC News that they are not ready for the financial obligation, including those who say the pandemic stripped away large portions of their college experience.