$60.82

A strange number up there isn't it? You could probably buy a lot with that amount of money if you were a savvy shopper. Maybe a new summer outfit. Or just two new pairs (maybe three on a sale) of new summer sandals. It could buy me approximately 6 packs of size 4 diapers in the mega or 40 count variety. I could probably splurge and go out to a really nice dinner with the kids and order drinks, appetizers, main meal and desserts. Of course it wouldn't buy dinner for Gary and I at a regular adult restaurant. Interesting what all of the possibilities would bring.

Instead, that $60.82 represents a final payment, due May 21st for my student loans. It will buy me freedom from almost 11 years of repayment of my Stafford loans from my undergraduate education and the University of Rhode Island. The payments weren't always this small granted but after all the payments have been totalled, interest figured out and applied, this is the last lingering bit of loan that I have to pay.

Strangely enough I didn't rack up any student loans for my masters degree. It was paid 75% by my company while I worked full time so I was able to swing the additional 25% on my own. Of course that was before Gary (well I met him during the last class for my degree), before kids and before my life really seemed to have started. Incidentally though, I do feel like it aged me more than having kids because sleep then was just as scarce as it is now with the late nights it brought on. Nonetheless, it has been paid for since 2003 when I got my masters degree.

But in May 1997, when I received my bachelors degree after 5 years with my eyes on that prize I didn't even fathom how liberating it would be to be done with student loan payments since I hadn't even started them yet and was in a grace period until January 1998. So here I am over 11 years later and I am finally in the home stretch. So here is to May 21st and $60.82, it's almost over baby!