HP Magic Giveaway!!!!

Moosh in Indy is taking part in the HP Magic Giveaway!! To enter you have to write a post on what you'd do if you won (for more specifics go to her post on it by clicking on Moosh in Indy).



Growing up I was a wannabe philanthropist. I imagined myself making millions of dollars (on a teacher's salary, no less) and donating nearly all of it to all the starving people of the world. Before I realized that some of the homeless people panhandling at the stoplights in the greater Houston area weren't actually homeless and made more money than my honest and hardworking parents, I imagined myself setting up a program to help them get the education, food, clothing, and opportunities needed to make a better life for themselves.

I've never been able to imagine why some people make millions of dollars a year, live in a mansion, and have only themselves or a spouse and two kids. Where does the extra money go? I know some of those people generously make tax deductible donations, but really, if they have all that extra, why let it sit in a bank account not doing anyone any good? I guess I am an idealist. I just can't understand what seems to be waste and selfishness.

Now I'm "grown up." I haven't exactly realized my childhood dream of making millions of dollars to generously bestow on others less fortunate than I. Instead of being the one to help others, I've had to swallow my pride and allow others to help me. For five and a half of the six and a half years my husband and I have been married, one or both of us have been "poor college students." In addition to the oh-so-common title of Poor College Students, for the last three years my family has been dubbed as "the poor family" in our Church congregation. We don't know who decided that we were worse off than anyone else in the neighborhood, much less who decided it three years in a row, but we couldn't deny that the help we received in the form of Christmas presents for the kids, a small Christmas tree, cash, and food were all very much appreciated.

All the generosity my family has experienced through the receiving end has only strengthened my desire to be the one who can do the helping. I always imagined myself, with my husband out of dental school, going back up to our old college town and bringing a nice fat check to the Bishop of our previous congregation there and asking him to give it to a family or families in his congregation who need it.

If I won the HP giveaway, I wouldn't have to wait for my husband to be done with dental school to begin my childhood dream (and Poor College Student dream). I could go back sooner rather than later and have something to give. Either way, I'll still bring that check in a few more years when dental school is done, but it would be awesome to help the Poor College Student Family of 2008 that took our place when we left.