It took fourteen years, an extension beyond the original 10-year plan (wasn’t that required?), with more than a few transfers to differing loan holders, but FINALLY I have paid off my student loans!

With this big one down, I’m now that much closer to becoming debt free for the first time in my adult life. If all goes well, I’ll achieve that milestone before I turn 40. Then I can really start to save and enjoy life even more, all of which is comforting. Just knowing I have a plan is comforting in itself.

For now, though, I’m going to enjoy and celebrate another victory over the money monster.

- Yours in debt-free-ness motion, Eric Small

The ongoing series of photo archive commentary

* WPG2 CANNOT LOCATE GALLERY2 ITEM ID 1653 ** WPG2 CANNOT LOCATE GALLERY2 ITEM ID 1656 * I graduated college in 1995. Five years earlier in 1990, I had entered college firmly believing the Republican way was the right way. Call me a kid of the Reagan era. In time though, I came to believe that Reagan was a fool when it came to domestic and foreign politics. Through an accident of history, he managed to preside just as the Communist era in the Soviet Union was self-imploding. I don’t today believe the Cold War caused the downfall of Communism, it only coincided with it. The idealized political system was doomed to failure, just as a pure Capitalistic system would be today (note that the USA is partially Socialistic).

Reagan nearly ruined America. And he did so by mortgaging away the future, economically, spiritually, and environmentally. In the process, he created a new generation of idealists that believe that capitalistic purity and patriotism are the way towards success in the future.

Fortunately, I was spared from the trap of such thinking through a genetic twist of my own. In college, I came to realize I was gay. That combined with a healthy education in critical thinking led me from The Right and firmly placed me into The Left. So, shortly after school, I found myself attached to the Democratic Party. In 1996, I had the pleasure of serving my country by participating in the Democratic Convention in Chicago. It was a great experience, though a little mundane. I was simply a driver for the delegation. But in participating, I got to experience one of America’s rights of political passage. I sat in on a couple of speeches during the week in the convention center, and enjoyed the experience tremendously.

The first in an ongoing series of photo archive commentary

* WPG2 CANNOT LOCATE GALLERY2 ITEM ID 289 *One of the best parts of my college experience was the part I played in the Marching Illini. No, no…I didn’t play any instruments (most of the time), I was part of the operational staff — the Undergrad Staff, as we were called. My one and only performance, however, was as a snare drum player during the Assembly Hall concert one year. And to the left is a picture of my one note. During the entire duration of the song, I stood at attention, rigid, and unsmiling, “like all drummers”, waiting for the break in the song. Four counts, then my loud strike of the snare, upon which the rest of the players continued on, and I went back into my rigid pose.

The audience, as hoped, broke into laughter and applause.

The moment was one of the highlights of my college career, so much so, as you can see, I kept and framed my sheet music from “One Mint Julep”.