… I don’t need to wait till thanksgiving comes around every year, do I?
As always, I have plenty people that I am truly grateful for. This time I want to make note of two particular people that have helped me out greatly this last month. I won’t give you their names, for their sakes and mine, but they are amazing.
You see, right now is a time for me where I am at 0 income, save for the governmental child support that I receive up to a certain point, under certain conditions. This money however is not enough to cover my rent, and my application for Germany’s student funding (bafoeg) is still in the works. I received a letter today telling me to please hold back on inquiries for the next 6 to 8 weeks. (They are certainly getting lots of applications this year, it seems. I hear it has to do with some change they did in the school system, leading to two years graduating at once everywhere… well, I’m not much on those school reforms, but if it helps to have 12 years instead of 13… who am I to complain, since it doesn’t matter to me anymore… in theory.)
Either way, it may be a while still before I get financial support. And while I am indeed on the lookout for some sort of student job, among the various laws I have to abide by to be allowed work whilst registered as a “Full-time Student” (yes, it matters, folks), of course I also have a schedule to consider. While on first glance, my schedule looks splendid for extra work, with me having mondays off and all, don’t be fooled: much of the work I need to invest in my studies happens at home. In fact, the way our credits for each course are calculated, we are very much expected to spend 50 to 80% of the estimated workload while working on material at home, not at school (which is in part the reason why there’s no requirement to attend, though of course it is very much recommended and desired by the professors).
So while I’m juggling my time between incomes (so to speak) and finding out how I can do my best at this new campus, with new people and new challenges, two wonderful people stepped up and helped me out. I ended up with enough money to not only pay my rent, but also finally get the required text books. And though they weren’t nearly as expensive as the ones I needed in Canada, nonetheless they required money I simply did not have left over.
What even more amazing about those two people who gave to me is that we don’t even know one another in real life. Sure, we’d seen photos of each other and shared stories – which made us friends, after all – but of course they couldn’t actually ‘know’ whether I needed the money or whether I was making it all up. Which is why I think they are such wonderful people; they trusted me, a person whom they never met, to be honest to them, to truly be in need.
When I asked them why they would go this far for a person who could be trying to scam them Nigerian-Prince-style, one of them chuckled, saying he was helped when he was in need, and that he firmly believes that I too will help out someone else when I have the opportunity (which is not untrue, mind ya – I have been quite generous in times when I could be, and I don’t intend on stopping to do so. Just, right now isn’t the best time for me, as you can see). The other one said that she did it because she held me dear, and that she wants to see the people she loves smiling, not worrying.
The both of them are truly amazing people. Despite my actual need, it was hard for me to accept their help straight away. Someone (other than family, of course spending so much money on me without a second thought, it was something I was not used to. It was a strange feeling, and I was quite skeptical about it – my inner pessimist constantly urging me to watch out for anything that might follow. Accepting help, however, is something everyone has to do at one point or another in their lives. I am gradually getting better at doing so myself. After all, what use is my pride if it puts me on dangerous paths?
I don’t know if I can ever repay them directly, but I’m all the more changed inside, ready to help out others when I can and where I can. And I don’t just mean the small daily good deeds, of course. If there’s some sort of stability to my life again some time, who knows, I’ll find a way… somehow I always do.
