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Get money for uni with a job, or meet great grandma for 1st time in Italy
So, I'm going to univeristy for the first time this September. My parents want me to go out and get a job for the summer to save up money. My grandparents also want me to go to Italy with them this summer to visit my great grandmother. I've never seen my great grandmother before, and apparently she wants to meet her only great grandchild she hasn't seen before. My grandparents want to pay for my plane ticket, but that's expensive, and I can't let her do that. What should I do?
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Ask yourself these questions:
Realistically, how much money could I earn this summer?
How much would that total amount really help me with school this fall. Unless it's an ongoing job throughout your attendance of school, the little earned in 3 months isn't going to cover you for long or very far.
So the issue is a trip to Italy or working instead.
What if there is another possibility?
I assume the parents don't have much money to spare and money will be tight either way once you go to University.
You need to decide for yourself how important it is to you to meet your great grandma. SHe is way old and not going to live much longer, you might luck out but she may not be alive once you finish your years of schooling and money will still be tight, not enough to afford going over yourself so you'd have to start working assuming you can get a job in your field with your degree and save up to afford the trip some years later later IF she's still alive. So depending on if its a 4 yr school and a couple years to save up, it could be 6 to 8 yrs or more before you could go and I am pretty sure that the possibility she's still alive is going to be very very slim.
This is pretty much a once in a lifetime event and opportunity. You will not have another chance. Great Grandma may be very disappointed to not see you if you choose to work instead. But she can get over it. Her life is at its end and yours is just starting, Your decision needs to be make for what is best for you and your future and how much going or staying is going to impact your future.
So staying home and working: I see it possible that the only impact to you is living with constant regret that you never went. This is your history, where your family comes from and you may never again in life have an opportunity to see another country once out of school, working, getting married and having kids. For example, why aren't your parents going. They must have had time to ask for vacation time and to save up for it? Our so called obligations once we're long out of school and doing the daily grind as an adult, sometimes keep us from being able to take a trip like this either due to financial reasons or simply mental ones, due to our thinking ourselves out of it thats its not so important and a waste of precious money.
There is no price that can be put on the value of a human being, we are all precious for simply being or as in great grandma's case, for simply still being.
Your grandparents don't have the same kinds of things that tie up their money and while they may not have much money, they probably live on lots less and need a lot less than they used to and seeing their relative one more time when they are already elderly themselves means there is a different perspective causing them to do so. For them, it comes down to the amount of time vs the amount of money. Money comes, money goes, but time left for living doesnt come back again, it goes for good at some point.
Here's another way to look at this. Many young folks before going to Univ, decide to travel the world for cheap cus they know once out of school and paying off a school loan, its going to be much harder to impossible. Seeing it as their only chance, they bike around Europe, take trains and live in hostels or camp to have the chance to do this. You already have plane ticket covered and a place to go to once there and won't have to worry about meals or such. Choosing to go doesnt mean Univ. is any less important.
Some kids even work Full time for a year to save up, not 3 months, delaying the start of Univ. until a year later. That way if a car is important to them, they've been able to save up for a reliable older model that they can pay for in a lump sum or have money for Univ.
If money is that tight that you must work before going to school, ask yourself if you are willing to work a year and delay school a year if possible. Nows the time to decide. If school can't be switched out a year, then you have to look at how much 3 months income is really going to help once school starts. Is it to pay for textbooks, to go toward dorm costs, transportation cost, the occasional eating out or movie cost? What exactly is this money supposed to cover? And can you go without or scrimp in the beginning if you will need to be working PT during your entire going to Univ.? We cant make this decision for you but these are things to think about. Your parents may not be happy with your decision but they also don't need to live with the personal financial or emotional stress of it. You're their child and they want what they think is most important for your future, however they are looking at it only from a financial aspect. Good luck.
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