The day I got my letter, I sat on my bed and stared at it. How was I going to tell my friends and family that I was going to University? It had always been a dream of mine to further my education with a university degree but my family, like many others lived paycheque to paycheque. I needed help. Lucky for me, there was OSAP. Unfortunately there was a time, mid second semester of my first year, where OSAP wasn’t enough and I started looking for a job.
Balancing life, school and work wouldn’t be easy and the stress of the situation was getting to me. Then I got the e-mail. I applied for as many awards as I could and was the successful recipient of an alumni donor funded award. That award was the light at the end of a very dark tunnel. I knew then that I would be ok. I would make it to the end of April.
The financial relief was overwhelming but there was something else also, the fact that someone out there that had never met me, wanted me to succeed. That they believed in me enough to make a donation has had such a tremendous impact on my life. Whoever, wherever you are: thank you. In less than a year, I will be a qualified teacher in Ontario. One day, I will give back because I was lucky enough to be given to.