yeah, I dunno. I guess I decided to do it more because I didn't want to regret not doing it later and since the two of them were encouraging me to do it. Katies the only one of my kids who will have graduated college, so thats something I'll share with her. And my dad got his degrees later in life like I have, so thats something I share with him. My oldest brother also got degrees, but doesn't use them weirdo lol But whatever makes him happy. He ended up not liking the work that he got the degrees for.

Colleges and universities are all very similar and very different I agree!! Its weird, and interesting to see. State to state even more so.

My scholarship got approved, however it stated it would be less than normal. I am wondering if thats because I earned more, because of the class schedule (its two classes, but one is the student teacher, and is worth the hours of FOUR classes)...or if they are running out of $ for scholarships. They already closed the other bonus money stuff I had applied for last year. :/ But at least I got through my college time completely with their help!! :P

Thank you and ! I'm at 409/1000! I will try to browse around the Kumos site more the next couple of weeks, as they seem to pop up a lot there!

I know I personally walked for my associates and undergrad! My parents were upset that I came from the pit (played in the band) instead of waiting in the long line and walking in, so I'll have to make it up in 2027, should I graduate!

I would think this would be a special moment to share, so don't think any more or less of it with the wedding not too long before! It's all up to you. My parents were the reason I attended both ceremonies (other than getting paid to play for my undergrad). I know your kids would love to see you proudly walk the stage! (or I would imagine they would!)

- are you doing the kumos quests? EVERY ONE of them gives a fairy!! I will send all the ones I got yesterday and today to you soon (I am about to go do my kumos quests)

It is special and I know a lot of my family won't care that its close to the wedding, most of them live in Florida (I'm in Georgia), but my dad lives in Utah, so I feel a bit bad about that, but he WANTS to see me do it, so I know he's happy to come out here twice in two months, as long as he has advance warning, so I need to let him know as soon as I know when. AND make sure he remembers it AND Katies wedding date LOL

- I was so proud to watch my 3 girls walk that I would have burst buttons. There's just something magical about watching someone walk across the stage. Congrats on getting the scholarship, that's not easy in these days of no one knowing where funding is going to come from anymore. XD

- I, also, have more fairies to send you. I get them from the kumos quests. I think there's a thread in the Luminaire forum where people are giving them away for free, too. :) What are you in school for? :D

Thank you guys for the Kumos site tips! Made 36 fairies between questing and pop-up ones :D And made "extra" sP because I had forgotten about the quests there!

Oh really? ? I'll have to look over in other sections of the forums! Though, I think between your guys' help and Kumos questing, I can easily make it for the site theme before the month is out! :D And then help others!!

And I'm in a Master's of Social Work program :D Trying to help people like my therapist has helped me!

Aww Kat that's great that your dad will come for both :D Nothing like proud family moments!

I just had to let you guys know that I got all As this semester! I was wondering, with my last grades missing, but I calculated, and everything is an A :D

Honestly this was probably the easiest scholarship in the world to get :P It is specifically for early childhood education, anyone in the program can apply, they give it to anyone who applies. You do have to show proof of passing grades or you can't renew it. I've had it I think four semesters now. It also only pays as much as you need to cover tuition, so if you got other grants or scholarships, it would pay less. I never applied for any others, because between that one, and the subsidized student loan, I had enough plus some to cover my tuition. I didn't really want to do student loans, but I also didn't want to try to apply to a bunch of random scholarships just hoping to get them - when I knew I would get the loan. Now, if the loan had been for a LOT more (my total is only around 12k for ALL my years/loans) I may have tried for more scholarships. But I got full PELL grant every year because of my income. So that reduced what I needed majorly!

YAAAAY Beth!! Way to go!! And I love that you want to help others like you were helped. <3

[edit] 405pm Aww guys. I am SO TOUCHED right now. So like literally, its my job at car rider duty to stand outside, make sure the kids get into their cars safely, help any who need help opening and closing doors, etc. Right? So I do help others who don't really need help, and I wave to parents I recognize, even if I never had their kids (Because after 8yrs of doing this, I know quite a few parents/cars on sight) Lol Well anyway, this one mom rolled down her window today when she pulled up next to me, and said "Here this is for you!!" and I was like ? and she said, "yes, for you!" "Ohh wow thank you so much, thats so kind!" (IT had Merry Christmas written on the envelope). The little boy (probably 2nd grade at this point?) comes running out to get in the car, and I open the door, he sees me holding the envelope and goes "Oh yes, thats your christmas card!!" and so I tell him "yes, thank you so very much" and say thank you to mom again as he climbs in and I shut the door. I go inside after car rider and open the envelope, thinking I got some cute little hand written note from this kid/his mom for helping him NO!~ This lady gave me $25 as a Christmas gift!! :o I am so shocked, so touched, she felt moved to gift me anything at all, let alone $25!

- Now, I may be mistaken but I could have sworn that I saw at least one thread trying to give away snow fairies amongst all the give-aways and contests. I didn't actually look in the thread, though, because I'd rather give the snow fairies to someone I know who needs them. :) Social work is a noble profession. I commend you on tackling it. I couldn't do it, too much strife and sadness associated with it for my liking but I admire those, like you, who do. :D

- I hear you. I was loathe to take out any student loans but had to in order to finish my last year. For some reason my pell didn't cover the last year fully and student loans were my only option. There were no scholarships that I could find for Creative Writing. That is when the one thing I am thankful for happened regarding my blindness. In all my student loans was a provision that my loans would be forgiven if I went blind. You can guess the rest. ;) Only tine I was thankful for it. :D

I hear that. Its nice to have loans forgiven. One other reason I wasn't too upset over taking the loans (though I might be if I was told wrong) was when I first began going to college, I was told by a lady who works at RESA (school thing, not really sure, but a regional education center) told me that there was a program/grant or something that if I worked for 5 years at a title one school after I graduated I could get 80% of my student loans paid off. Umm heck yea? I'll go for that. Every school in my county is title one right now! Now that I'm in my last semester I need to go to RESA and see if I can find that lady or at least find out more information about that program - because the only thing like it I was able to find at the FAFSA site said only certain subjects (like math or science) teachers would get that type of grant/payment. But I am not sure if that one I found is the same one she was talking about, because maybe there is a local thing vs the federal thing?

- Please don't quote me but I am a stickler for fine print. I used to read it on everything. Now, I make my husband read it to me instead. :P BUT, on my federal pell grant paperwork, at the very bottom where fine print is usually located is where I read about the forgiveness if you're blind. That's also where I read that persons completeing teaching degrees and working in special schools, may have been title I, I don't remember, would have most if not all of their loans forgiven. I told my youngest daughter about thisand she looked into it. She told me it is Title I and the amount forgiven depends on what kind of teacher you are. She picked early childhood education and got 890 % of her loans forgiven. I think if you look at the bottom of the papers Pell sent you you'll find the footnote about it and it tells you where to look for more info. Like I said, don't quote me on this but that lady didn't steer you wrong. Oh, my daughter is a teacher in Houston Texas so I don't think it matters what state you're in. :D

- glad to hear that about your daughter hearing about it and doing it too, makes me feel more like it's actually possible. I'll have to look at my pell information then as well as go to RESA. Anything to help me NOT have to pay that back (though, 12k vs 60-100k+ is a lot easier to pay back if I have to do it myself!) I have no issue staying in my school for 5yrs once I get hired. I've been at the one I'm at now for 10 years. And even if I do switch schools, I think as long as I'm in a title one school, it shouldn't matter if I switch schools but thats something I'll check on too! Everything was electronic, nothing was sent to me on paper, so hopefully I can find it :P

oh yea did anyone else notice Library Quests got added to Kumos? I was so excited!! :D I see he has been tweaking other quests too - Wiz was one I didn't finish early this morning on Kumos, so I just did him, and he asked for random things and not spell ingredients :o

- I always got paper copies sent to me just as a precaution.. Still, on your digital copies they should have the footnotes printed somewhere. Maybe on the last page? I'll try to catch my daughter and see what she says about it so I can let you know where to look. :)

Oh, he did? That gives me hope that Quentin and Carl will be added, also. I need Quentin for the amulets and Carl is just funny. I've been stuffing Lumi trees and haven't done my quests yet today. :P :D

Thanks - knowing where to look would be helpful, because I've browsed the website and only found the 5-year, math/science teacher thing I was talking about - but it doesn't say 80% like the lady told me, it says 5k for "regular" teachers who qualify and up to 17k for the science/math teachers. It did also say to "contact your state agency" for other options.

I'll be gifting my friends sometime next week, while I am off on break :) Maybe even this weekend. Tomorrow will be INSANE at school - We'll have a mostly normal morning followed by a Christmas Sing-Along, and then Class Parties to end the day. Phew. :P At least car rider will be super short due to that! I always love Christmas Party and Valentines Party and other special events (like Kinder graduation day) because LESS car riders!! :D

I'm trying to make kumos quests first thing in the morning a habit, so I get them done. Since eventually legacy quests will be gone. I am hoping for more questors there too! Quentin and Carl would be good ones.

- One thing that I just remembered is that I graduated in 2014 so it all may have changed since then. XD I've been gifting peeps all week. I'm hoping I get done before the trees open. xd I get sidetracked when looking at peep's wishlists and end up adding stuff to my own wishlist. :P

I don't do my quests, my son does them for me and he does them when the chron changes over so he can get 2 days done at one time. He likes the kumos quests because they're quicker. I like them because they give a nice chunk of money. :D

I think I would find that more annoying than anything hahahah! To get DONE with quests, just for them to reset :P BUT I guess if you plan it that way, it would be nice. Also I am NOT a night owl, so I will never be awake when quests reset overnight. Only if/when the get manually reset during the day for random reasons. I do like it when that happens, just for the opportunity to redo them....but usually I've completed them in the morning when that happens and its in the afternoon, so I've had a break.

That's great that your loans were forgiven! I figured they had some exception, but I've never qualified for any exceptions. 80k in loans for me (I blame younger me who didn't have everything figured out the first go around)

That's good that you have a program qualifying you for almost total debt forgiveness!

My program here in NY is doing something similar-as long as I work in a place with at least 40% Medicaid insurance individuals for 3 years, their payment of my debt is canceled. I already wanted to work with individuals who were on Medicaid or no insurance like me anyways, so it works out.

And thank you guys as always for the fairies! I have some inventory cleaning out before I can get today's quest fairies myself from Kumos.

Oh wow yikes Beth. See that is what I would have been worried about, having that much debt. I hope you do get your program to cancel your debts!!

I was very careful about what I was doing. In fact, the first college I went to, I ended up being PAID to attend lol By the time I figured that out I had graduated from there (associates). I knew I'd gotten money back from them each semester, but I never added it up until after I graduated - That was also partly during the covid era - and the colleges had extra funds to give to students for covid issues. Then I made sure I only took classes I NEEDED when I switched to my new college, and transferred everything I could (I had made sure to take classes I knew would transfer & count!) So with the PELL I only needed a small amount of student loans per semester. So glad of it too.

Gotta go feed my neighbors dog and walk her, then I'll be back to finish my legacy quests.

- My son is a nightowl, always has been, so he likes it that he can get, essentially, two days off between having to do quests again. He doesn't mind doing them but sometimes they cut into his work time and he grumps about that. I just remind him how much his help helps me and he stops grumping. He reallly is a saintly kid. 😂 I have no idea how I ended up with such a kid since my adoptive mother cursed me wit the "I hope someday you have a kid who is as bad as you are." I thought I was doomed. 😂

- You're lucky to have such a plan available. I was stupid about student loans and got suckered for 60k of predatory loans. I just didn't know what I was doing and couldn't make heads or tails out of the programs offered. The only one I did understand was the Pell grant because it was so straight forward. So, getting my loans forgiven was wonderful. I hope you're able to get your loans forgiven, too, but for better reasons. But, with all the changes that are being made to the Dept of Education you may want to check and see if your program will survive the changes. :) You're very welcome for the fairies. I'll send more along as soon as I have enough to make it worth the 1000sp. :P :D

- you know, that saying says just as much about the parent as it does the child - when a parent tells their kid that - the parent isn't doing such a great job if their kid is a PITA :P Some kids just are anyway, even no matter what the parent does, but a lot of the time, if the parent changes something THEY are doing, the kid changes what they are doing, and things get better!! If your kid is like you say, you did a good job raising him!! I don't think my kids would do my quests for me hahaha I think Nathan has collected my melody's cottage or other daily things a few times, years ago, when I asked him to since I was at work and didn't have stuff like this on my phone then....but I doubt he'd sit for an hour or more to do my quests!

I am not sure if I will further my education beyond where I am. I could earn more if I do - obviously. I could get a Masters and then a Specialists degree in Early Childhood Education. I am just not sure if I want to do more school work for it. I have heard the Masters requires a LOT of writing. Not my favorite thing to do :P

- My adoptive mom was a piece of work. She is a malignant narcisit (not sure if I spelled that right.) Plus, she's a horder. While growing up nothing I did was right in her eyes. I could dosomething exactly as she asked me to and she would still find something wrong with it. XD I say my son is saintly but I'm waiting for the evil genius to pop up. I know he's going to turn into a super-villan sometime inhis life. He's just too good right now. I hope that makes sense. Oh, and I guess I should say that I pay him to do my quests, which is why he truly doesn't mind doing them. 😂 Plus, I guilt him into it playing the blind cripple with a screen reader card. That one always works. I feel like I shouldn't be admiting that... 😆

The one thing I regret about my student loan forgiveness is that I can't go back to school. I would love to further my degree by taking the master's course. Oh, a lot of writing is right up my alley. I would love it because I'm not very good at other type of activities. You have time to think about continuing. Maybe do the job for a couple of years before deciding whether you want to go back and further your degree. It may turn out that you're perfectly happy with your degree and see no reason to further it. :D

- some people should not be parents :/ Ooh paying the child hahaha yes that would do it to get him to do something for you! (and eh, why not play the blind cripple once in a while if it works, but only on your child not for other things hahah! Because he knows you're guilt tripping him using it, I'm sure! :P ) Nope I'm over here trying to get my kid to pay me. He did so good until October, when he got out of the habit of going to the bank to get $ (we had agreed to $300 a month, not very much honestly, if he was living anywhere else it would be at least triple that!) He gave me his card to use at the store twice, once it declined (he had just under $100 so I didn't use it!!) and then in Nov and now Dec he hasn't given me anything :/ Need to bring that up with him again but I hate being mean about $ at Christmas, when I KNOW he wants to use the $ for gifts... sigh But in JAN for sure. I will be mean. "GO TO THE BANK AND BRING ME MY $ WE AGREED ON!" Same with older butthead when he gets here, if he doesn't offer it up - You wanna stay? GO TO THE BANK (I used the gps and tracked all the driving I did for him while he was here that last couple days and in less than two days me/Nathan drove him 98 miles!!)