Just venting, I guess. I've been back and forth for years and years now, on how to handle my ballooning SL debts. DH and I settled on working through debt payoff and started using Undebt It to keep ourselves on track. Admittedly we are prioritizing paying off credit cards, vehicles, and our mortgage before student loans. Until recently, I just sort of decided I would never get to a payoff point and would just have to live with these SLs forever. I do still sometimes wonder if I will inevitably die of old age with student loans intact.
Anyway, I logged into my great lakes account today. What began in 2001 was a trend of taking out student loans to get through school. I didn't go to fancy schools, I went to state schools. Yet still, I managed a massive debt accumulation. I can see my consolidation loan in 2016 for $79k to rope it all together from years of forbearance and deferments. I looked at that $79k, which is now actually $123k as of today. I looked at my repayment options and see April 2052, and paying off $260k on level payments or $282k on graduated payments, and I could puke. It makes me angry at my circumstances as a young person, who did not know better. It makes me frustrated and confused just trying to factor in how to pay off this balance. I guess it also makes me lucky that at least the consolidation was still federal, so I have protections in place to some degree for now. I don't work in public service, so I won't qualify for PSLF. My SL balance, if it truly reaches April 2052 amounts, will be the most I've ever paid for something....probably combined with all my debts together. 
If you have managed to pay off amounts like this or greater, I would love some inspiration.
Luckily we aren't in financial crisis so I'm not terribly concerned about lates. More that my comment about priority payoff was meant that while other debt is in payoff mode, my SL is in minimum payment mode. Today it just feels so daunting, I guess. This massive balloon of debt lingering over me like a cloud.
Have you looked into the Income-Driven Repayment forgiveness? It requires 20 years of payments and the resulting forgiveness might be taxable, but it doesn't have the employer restrictions that PSLF does. I have a similar amount of student loans and my decision point for what to do with them will happen next year. I know it can be disheartening, but you just need to take some time to figure out your options and decide on the best course of action. Good luck!
I've been on IBR as long as I can remember. Literally the whole 22 years since I began my journey with student loans. I was in a financial crisis in 2016 that pretty much forced loan consolidation of all of my student loans to claw them back from default. So as far as I can tell from online research, that reset the 20 year IBR timeline. I haven't yet found any clear information on the internet about what sets the 20 year timeline, and how to actually apply for discharge from that.
@radfam wrote:I've been on IBR as long as I can remember. Literally the whole 22 years since I began my journey with student loans. I was in a financial crisis in 2016 that pretty much forced loan consolidation of all of my student loans to claw them back from default. So as far as I can tell from online research, that reset the 20 year IBR timeline. I haven't yet found any clear information on the internet about what sets the 20 year timeline, and how to actually apply for discharge from that.
The PSLF and IDR waivers put out early in the pandemic broadened how payments are counted towards the forgiveness programs and consolidation might not reset the timer. It is definitely hard to find clear info though. Here's a decent explainer that I found: IDR Waiver: How to Qualify and Get Your Loans Forgiven Faster (studentloanplanner.com)