Future Plans

When I was asked what I would do with close to eighty thousand dollars in cash, I really did not know. My first instinct was to pay off college, but the one condition was that it could not be spent on education. Ok, so cross off option one. Now I was stumped. My whole life had been planned around education. I sat back and started to truly think about what I would do. I realized that there are several factors that influence my decision

Since my freshman year in high school, I have wanted to be a special education teacher. I fell in love with Torey Hayden’s books about her career in special education. My junior year, I meant a guy on a mission trip to Shepherds, a ministry for the mentally disabled in Wisconsin. He had come with my youth group, but I had not known him that well. During the mission trip, we were paired up as prayer partners. We really got to know each other. That fall we started dating, and we have been together now for almost three years. He is planning to be a firefighter.

During this time of figuring out my relationships, my mom was diagnosed with lymphoma (cancer of the lymph nodes). My mom and I have always been very close. I chose to attend Illinois State University not only because it is an amazing school for special education, but because it is only forty-five minutes from home. She has been through several procedures and chemo and has been declared to be in remission. However, lymphoma can never be cured completely, and remission is not always permanent.

So when thinking about how I wanted to spend my money, I realized that I would not want to go far from home. I would miss my mother too much. I also would not want to leave my boyfriend behind. We are very close, and I would not want to be apart from my best friend. I finally decided that if I had all that money, I would want to spend it on responsible things. I would buy my dream truck, and with the extra money, I would put a down payment on a house. This might seem boring, but I am happy with my life. There isn’t much I would want to change, so I am perfectly content to spend my money in this way.