Good News!!!

Background:
I have student loans to pay back for graduate work at a private institution. This adds up to a pretty penny, and the plan prior to relocating to Bethel, AK was that I'd slowly pay off these debts for the next 17or so years. This cuts into my paychecks fairly substantially when you look at interest and principle over the repayment period. I know many of you out there understand exactly where I'm coming from.

When I looked into the job here in AK, I found out that 1) There's no state tax in AK. 2) There's a dividend paid to AK residents every year (you have to establish residency first) and 3) working int he medical field, there was the option of getting loan forgiveness or repayment for working with the native population/working in a rural area.

Enter stage left... Loan Repayment Program (LRP) through Indian Health Services (IHS). Those who work in certain medical fields are qualified for tuition repayment if you work with the Native Alaskan or Indian populations and/or rural areas.

When I looking into the LRP, it was quite clear that all Federal and State loans taken out during the education period to obtain my degree (all of grad school) would be eligible for repayment, the question was IF my private loans were qualified as well. The application and policies said "federal, state and corporate loans". Corporate loans in my understanding were loans for a business but as it turns out, they consider private loans for school to be under this category.

Current:
I received an award letter that all of my grad school loans are qualified for the LRP. This means I get to save more money, and Pay off my school debt in 5-6 years instead of 17-20 years. Also, I'll be staying a little longer in Alaska than originally planned (unless I absolutely HATE the winters, which I'm doubting).
As I put it to my parents... I'd be an idiot to turn down free money.

My insides are all gooey at the prospect of being completely debt-free by the time I leave here. And who knows, maybe I'll love it enough to stay forever. Only time will tell.