It’s been so long since I’ve been paying tuition to various colleges, universities and whoever sends me a bill. Sometimes the bill has been from the university. Other times it’s from Sallie Mae. Then, maybe again sometimes it’s from “Simon says, pay this bill.”

Who can keep track of all those relentless payments? What is galling is the private school that asks for donations while I am still paying off tuition loans. Politely, I write a little note and tell the school that I’ll send them a check. Then, they can apply it first to our tuition debt and apply the $1.27 residual to their next capital campaign.

Once I got really feisty and told them that the funds that they generated from selling my son’s confiscated bicycle should be applied to my tuition debt since it was my bicycle that I loaned to my son. They politely sent me a note saying that the bicycle was illegally parked and was rightly confiscated. So, much for the privileges of private education.

But, today I finally have some relief. After countless years of paying tuition, eating peanut butter sandwiches and calling work trips vacations I actually have a little breathing room. I paid my last tuition payment last month! I am tuition paid!

Oh, oh. I wonder if the Vice President of Development at that private college reads blogs? He probably has an internet sifter to detect such exultation and zero-in on celebratory parents with his “Blackbaud” spy software. If my phone rings soon after this blog is posted, I’ll know who’s calling.

Bill payments have a sort of base bland envelope that transports the cold hard numbers into my home every month. While I have procrastinated paying the end of the month bills a few too many times, the bills have arrived as regular as clockwork. They are consistent, persistent and durable over the years.

But now, I can celebrate a little. I’ll be smiling when the mail comes for a little while. Instead of the schools sending me a bill, the bank will take their place. Loans for past tuition had to come from some where. I celebrate tuition-paid living now. Some day tuition loans will be paid too and I will be tuition-free!

In the meantime at least the bank bills come in cheerful colors. I can say I am done paying tuition! That’s worth a little celebration.