PROUDEST MOMENT OF MY LIFE

TODAY AT 7:30 a.m.
Mountain Standard Time

WE PAID OFF OUR MORTGAGE!!!!!

I can recall my 3 most proud, me beaming ear-to-ear moments and this tops them:

1. When I finished my degree for the third time: That degree represented a commitment I could scarce muster. It took everything I possibly had to go back to school again, start from scratch, and complete another degree. To put everything on hold. I commuted while I worked several jobs and I took 20+ credits of insanely difficult literature courses to top it off. There were a few semesters there where I was reading 5 novels a week (we're not talking pulp fiction here, we're talking Candid, Kafka, and Kamalu). I marvel to this day that I did it, got through it, made it to Spain and back, and survived with a 4.0! I didn't walk this time. Instead I cried the whole drive home after I left my last class: advanced grammar. There were so many hoops. So many hoops. I think a few of them were lit with flames that scarred me for life.

2. The day we flew home from NYC: Not that I wanted to come back. I'd live out the rest of my life there if I could make it work on a teacher's salary. I even have a game plan if Q dies an untimely death: I'm packing up and moving back to the city... The reason why this was the proudest moment ever was because we had conquered Manhattan. Not only did I land the best job in the universe for us, we actually leased a down town studio in AUGUST! This most impossible feet can not be fully appreciated unless experienced. When we left, we knew our way, had our faves, and had become city experts... oh but it was so hard in the beginning. We dropped our entire life's saving in 28 days and suffered the deepest darkest moments together.

3. PAY OFF our 2nd MORTGAGE: which brings us to today! This moment! The moment when our sacrifice and perseverance, our determination and planning all come to fruition. Someone told me we were lucky to be able to do this... but I got offended. Maybe I shouldn't have, but I feel that luck has nothing to do with it! This day didn't happen by luck!!! It happened because of CHOICES we made. When everyone chose to buy houses, we didn't. When others had high commission jobs and made bank, we picked security and insurance. When our friends had lazy nights and cable banter to offer, we were studying our butts off and finishing school- again! We made sure our condo could be paid for on one salary so we would be able to make it if anything happened to one of our jobs and this is the only reason we were able to pay off our 2nd mortgage and dig ourselves out of a bad investment. What's more: THIS ENTIRE TIME of me teaching SCMS middle school kids, I have saved every single bit of it and sunk it into our loan. I HAVEN"T SPENT ONE PENNY OF IT!!! NOT ONE!!!! The horrible, long, tear gripping hours of service and every single dime and dollar has been carefully scrimped, scrapped, and siphoned off into our mortgage! I even taught dance after school so we could buy food and extras and wouldn't have to tap into my SCMS teaching $$$$! It was so hard to have such discipline!

..AND YES-
I am tooting my horn a bit, but I don't mean to sound forceful or condescending. I don't mean to rub it all over the place with red paint. I don't mean to say I'm better...

I'm just so PROUD!

I'm so proud that when others were buying and playing and spending and bragging-
we were WORKING and INSURING and WAITING and PLANNING.

We did it Q!!!! We did it!