A young girl's dream

A young girl’s dream

As a 10 year-old girl I had one big dream in my life. I wanted to own a white sheep dog. I loved dogs in general but mostly sheep dogs, particularly the white ones. I so badly wanted one, so much so that I started saving up my humble weekly pocket money and continued to do so for a whole year. I didn’t want to ask my parents for help. Despite my young age, I was very aware of our limited household budget. My parents loved me very much and would do anything within their means to make me feel happy. If I were to ask them for help, they would no doubt put themselves through some financial difficulties in order to get me what I wanted. In fact, they didn’t even know that I was saving all of my pocket money. When a year has elapsed, I had managed to collect a decent amount of money, which was only slightly short of the price of my long awaited sheep dog. I started feeling proud of myself and of my perseverance.

I had a school friend whom I was very close to. One day during the break time at school, I noticed that she was unusually quiet. I asked her what the problem was and she started crying. I loved her so much and could not bear watching her cry, so I started crying as well. She told me that her mum was seriously ill and had been on medical treatment for a while with no real response. The doctor had told them that she might not have long to live. My friend understood that her mum was going to die, perhaps as soon as within a few weeks time. She told me that she had always wanted to buy her mum the designer dress that she knew she liked but could not afford. My friend was so upset about her mum’s illness, and about the fact that she would not have the time to save up from her pocket money in order to buy her mum the dress she liked.

I told my friend that I could help her. I didn’t think twice, I took her home with me after school and gave her all my savings. She needed them more than I did. Surely, I could wait for another year for my sheep dog but she can’t afford to. Her mum would die within a few weeks.

My friend hesitated a little before she took the money. She was indeed very grateful to me. Although I was sad for her mum, I was happy as I felt that I had made a difference. Because of what I did, my friend’s mum would be able to buy her dream designer dress before she met her death. She would also be very proud of her daughter. Yes, I felt slightly upset as I wouldn’t be able to buy my white sheep dog for a long time to come, but the immense feeling that I was able to provide some contribution that
 made a difference to someone’s life was so overwhelmingly pleasing. I never regretted it, and I would happily do it again if I needed to.