Aspire to be Educated

Today I am grateful for a nice wrestling banquet and recognition evening for this season for our son Sam and his teammates last night. I am grateful to the coaches, managers, teammates, and other parents who all help make our school's wrestling program outstanding.

I am also grateful for affordable student loans. Last week we spent a night in West Des Moines, Iowa.
When I went for a run the next morning in the area around the hotel, I ended up running past a building that houses my student loan company. It is now called Iowa Student Loan/Aspire.

As I ran past, I considered the value of my formal education in my professional career, and how it has also helped me grow personally. I fully appreciate that low-interest student loans helped make both my undergraduate and graduate degrees possible.

About the time I got my loans paid off for my 4-year degree, I began my master's program. We continue to pay on the loans for my graduate degree, but it is slowly working it's way down. More than worth it in so many respects.

Formal education matters, as do affordable ways of paying for it. Informal education matters too.
Today, I aspire to educated in the ways of gratitude, love, tolerance, and compassion for those around me, the world around me, and myself.