A milestone you helped me reach. (Patreon)

Now and then, friends and supporters have remarked that I speak of my educational choices  with regret sometimes. It's always embarrassed me that I owed money for a B.A., an M.A., and finally a Ph.D., and that the due bills seemed to go up while stable employment (at least, that paid more than what I needed to scrape by) remained elusive. Sure, I never owed as much as some people--I had some scholarships, and some research and teaching assistantships during grad school that offset my costs--but the amount has always been a burden and a kind of wound in my pride.

That is, until I started this Patreon page in 2016. It takes a lot of time--who knows how many hours total I've spent so far--to create and edit the videos, the books, and the other efforts that make up my public education work. But thanks to Patreon, thanks to you, I'm no longer in the permanent survival mode I spent about 15 years in. 

Instead, as of today, I now have a balance of only four digits remaining to pay on my student loans. Now that's not nothing. But only your support on Patreon has allowed me to get there in 2020 instead of 2025. Your support on Patreon has saved me from paying interest on all those dollars I wouldn't otherwise have been able to pay off that soon, too.

So thank you, again, from the roots of my heart. Your support is not only a vote of confidence, it's a serious, lasting contribution to my quality of life. No one expects it of you or demands it of you, but you do it out of the goodness of your heart, and I'm grateful every day for you.

All the best,

Jackson Crawford