Life throws us curve balls. We all get them: Spraining your ankle while chasing around in the yard with your kid means having to cancel your upcoming hiking trip. Your car in the repair shop means dipping into the vacation fund to the tune of a thousand bucks to get it back out. Cutbacks at work mean taking on extra work without extra money in your paycheck to show for it.
These curve balls can throw us off course, some for a small amount of time, others for longer periods. We grouse, we complain, we wish for different circumstancesor at least I know I do. But its all relative. A bad day is a bad day; a bad week lasts just a week. And, are they really all that bad to begin with?
This has never been clearer for me than after watching the LIFE Lessons scholarship videos. These short videos have been created by young people who find themselves struggling to pay for college because their parents died with little or no life insurance. In watching these videos, you realize that your curve ball may, in fact, be a soft lob.
Take Mashell. When her mother died suddenly of a heart attack when she was in high school, there was no life insurance to help provide for her familys financial needs. She and her brother were forced to take on jobs to pay rent and other bills, as well as care for their younger sister.
Or Giavanna. Her father had not renewed his life insurance policy the year he died and he didnt have a will, leaving her and her sisters with nothing. To provide for herself, Giavanna has taken on jobs singing in nightclubs and working in restaurants.
And then theres Massih. When his father lost his battle with stomach cancer, his family found themselves in financial trouble. He became the man of his house, playing father and brother to his younger sister and also worked many hours after school to pay for his personal expenses and help contribute to the household.
Instead of being carefree college students as they had dreamed of, they are struggling just to make ends meet. You can help. While each of these young people has already been awarded a $2,500 college scholarship from the LIFE Foundation, the young person whose story receives the most online votes will receive an additional $2,500 in scholarship money. Votes can be cast at www.lifehappens.org/vote. The deadline to vote is Friday, Aug. 13, 2010 at 5 p.m. Eastern.
I urge you to find a moment to watch these videos and vote, and in the process take a bit of the curve off the ball that life has sent their way.
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- Cast a Vote and Change a Life
- What’s Your Excuse?
- Do you have enough life insurance?
- Spare Some Change?
- Insurance Follows Students Wherever They Go
