I am Madelyn Grace Rimando, 18, thank you for lending your time to hear my story.
I am from La Union, in the Northern part of the Philippines. I live with my brother right now, and we are facing this cruel life on our own. It all started when our father left us for another woman. Our mother was devastated and later died because of a stroke caused by a brain aneurysm. She was on a coma for three days, until her body gave up. It was so sudden that, our tears are holding, our hearts are broken, and we wished that reality is just an illusion.
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 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.
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 acute rhino-sinusitis, in which he needs an operation and also his expenses at school and 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. But, right now, we can’t do this on our own so we are knocking on your hearts for any help that you can give.The help that we guarantee that will produce a competent engineer and transparent lawyer in the near future.
To love and to care is the purpose of life. We will be forever grateful. Thank you and God bless.
