When was the last time you asked for help?
For some parents, putting pride aside to ask for or simply accept help is out of the question.
What kind of message does this send the children of these moms and dads?
Regardless of how much you may despise humbling yourself, the fact is everyone needs help at some point in their lives, be it financial, physical or emotional.
No one is perfect; and asking for or accepting assistance doesn’t make you a loser.
It’s a lesson a college student from New Jersey is trying to teach kids and their parents, using herself as the example.
Judea Hill’s dream has always been to complete college. She made it through three years at Drew University, but then, hard times hit and the art major couldn’t come up with the funds she needed to enter her senior year.
Despite receiving about $50,000 a year in financial aid and working as an administrative assistant at the university, Hill could not cover the $2,800 balance she had for the previous semester. If she didn’t pay the fees, she would not be able to return to Drew to complete her senior year.
Out of sheer desperation, the enterprising college coed took to YouTube last month to post a teary six-minute video asking random viewers for help paying her tuition.
Within days Hill’s YouTube video had been viewed nearly 2000 times with people offering roughly $480. In the meantime, Hill received a Facebook message from a Drew alumna, whom she had never met.
“If you wouldn’t mind, I would like to pay the remainder of your bill,” the message said, according to NJ.com.
Mission accomplished.
Sort of.
In publicly humbling herself, Hill also sparked a brouhaha in cyberspace. Some questioned whether the student was exercising humility or simply begging.
“People feel like I’ve been sitting around on my (butt) and not doing anything, but I have,” Hill told NJ.com.
Still, despite the harsh criticism from some, Hill is using her time in the media spotlight to send a message to other kids about asking for assistance when you’ve run out of ways to help yourself.
“When you are going through something you try to stay hopeful, but there is always that looming negative thing in the back, lurking, saying, ‘be prepared you might not be able to come back.’ I didn’t want to have to make that phone call and tell them I couldn’t come back.”
Since accepting help, Hill posted a new video explaining that her bill has been paid and that she plans to put the extra money raised in a fund for other students who are struggling financially.
What do you make of Hill’s public appeal? Would you want your child to follow in her footsteps?
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