Help for a Future Engineer and Lawyer’s Dream.

Hi Reader,

I am Madelyn Grace Rimando, 18, I am immensely grateful for lending your time to read our story.

I am from La Union, in the Northern part of the Philippines. I am an ambitious girl who wants the most out of life since we aren't one of those privileged to have a silver spoon on their table. I live with my brother, and we are bravely facing a life where we are getting our strengths and hopes from each other. Here I am sharing our story because of more than the help that we are hoping, is the perspective that we want to share.

Our first drawback was when our father left us for another woman. We are devastated, especially our mother. I can still feel the pain, the agony, that nothing's more crushing to see your mother cry every night.

Several months later, our mother died because of stroke caused by brain aneurysm. She was on a coma for three days, until her body gave up. It was so sudden that it seemed that everything became void.

I stopped in my studies last 2018, because of extreme financial problems and depression, and I was a grade 10 student at that time. I was one of the top students in our class. That is heartbreaking yet understandable in my part since we are barely surviving and devastated by the sudden loss of our mother and all the things that have happened. I am an achiever since I started schooling because, in my mind, this will be our only chance of having a better life. So we took the chance to enroll me in the Alternative Learning System (ALS) last 2019 for out of school youths where we are only required to finish modules and attend classes once a week. The most convenient and affordable way for my situation. This way I finished senior high school. This year, I will be an incoming college student full of hopes but lacks financial support. I want to take up Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration. A great course to start preparing for my dream to become a lawyer. It would take me 8 years to fulfill my dream, but dreams are worth fighting for. The dreams that once gave hope to my mother before she died. The dreams that kept us going in life.

These were my grades and recognitions before I stopped last 2018.

I admire my brother for almost taking all the responsibilities. His name is Mardel, I know deep in my heart that he is striving to give us at least a good life. He is a 5th-year college student right now, with a major in Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering at Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University. He is taking up a supposed to be a 5-year course for 7 years now because he needs to prioritize working and be a student at the same time to support our needs and his school expenses. I know he is tired and sad deep inside, but we are holding onto the hope of a better tomorrow. I also wrote this letter to help him. At the very least, this is my little way to help him with the treatment of his reoccurring acute rhinosinusitis, in which he needs an operation, his expenses for his remaining semester for his on the job training and his upcoming board examination review.

We are eager to become successful someday because that's the promise that we made to ourselves and our mom. Our life is hard but our dreams are bigger. So, we are knocking on your hearts for any help that you can give. All we are holding right now is a beautiful perspective. A perspective of a beautiful tomorrow through education. We guarantee that with your effort to give at least a penny, it will produce a competent engineer and lawyer in the near future..

To be compassionate is the purpose of life. We will be forever grateful. Thank you and God bless.