First of all, I love the new website look; I hadn´t visited in a while, and this was a nice surprise. Anyway, I am simply stressed beyond measure. I am attempting to raise funds for a high school volunteer service trip to Ghana next year ($5000!), but naturally, my parents are extremely unsupportive. They won´t let me set up fundraisers like bake and garage sales saying, “They will never work,”. They don´t allow me to ask for donations from people they know, and basically think this entire thing is not worth the money. As a result, I have been taking up babysitting jobs. My summer schedule is packed. I am essentially going to be babysitting every day along with running for my high school cross country team and basketball practice, and I am already exhausted trying to plan things out. I keep getting more and more calls/ messages asking for babysitting, not to mention I also agreed to help another lady with her catering business on the side as well. I feel like in the end, I’m just going to collapse from being so stressed out and completely fail to reach my goal of raising enough money to go to Ghana. I also feel like since my schedule is so hectic, I´m going to end up breaking so many promises with parents in terms of scheduled times to babysit. My parents don´t really understand that I´m stressed about not being able to travel to Ghana to work with schoolchildren (which has been one of my biggest dreams). They think I´m stressed solely about babysitting; which is obviously something that is pretty stupid to be stressed about. Also, did I mention I have to raise all this money by the end of August before the program fills up; and that I’m going on a 4-week trip to Thailand to visit my relatives in the middle of the summer which removes an enormous chunk of time? Without my parents´ support, I feel overwhelmed, slightly hopeless, and just depressed in general that I will most likely be unable to reach my goal and will miss the opportunity of a lifetime even with all of the hard work I am putting in.
CONSIDER THIS
- Thank you for writing to Teencentral.com today. We’re glad you like our new look. We like it, too!
- It’s wonderful that you would take time out of your life and dedicate that time to work with schoolchildren in another country. That is an endeavor that will leave you feeling good. You will be impacting lives in a positive way and making a difference. While it seems like a lofty goal to raise the necessary money by the end of August, it’s not impossible to do. When you have the passion and desire to do something good, you have the ability to make it happen.
- You may not feel like you’re getting a whole lot of support from your parents; and this may have you feeling alone; but don’t give up. Allow them to see that you’re doing everything you can to make your dreams come true. While you continue to babysit and help out with the catering business, keep talking about how excited you are about this upcoming opportunity.
- You want to consider opportunities to raise money online. You may have even seen posts online from people needing funding for trips, projects of other things that have them feeling just as passionate as you feel right now. It’s possible that this could be a quick and easy way to achieve your goal. In the meantime; keep working toward your goal by continuing to babysit, etc..
- You may want to speak with the team in charge of this trip for other money-making ideas. Perhaps you and someone else going on the trip can work together on a fundraising project.
HELP YOURSELF
- Why is it important to let people see how important your mission is? Passion and feeling excited can be contagious. How can you show that you are not giving up on your dream?
- How might your parents possibly change their tune if they see you are not going to quit?
- What are some other ways you could raise money for this trip?
- How are the others raising money?
