LIFE Lessons – Essay Category First Runner-Up
Westwood College Online
Hometown: Helen, MT

I was six years old when my father died in a mid-air collision. He was a pilot for Sky West Airlines. He was stuck from underneath by a smaller airplane. Upon his death, the life insurance he had was used to pay for his burial and the costs associated with that. There wasn’t much left over after that.

Thankfully, my mother did receive social security and workers compensation benefits due to his death, but we still struggled for money. There wasn’t much to put towards college. My mother was able to stay home during most of my childhood. The cost of childcare would have been enormous with 4 young children. My youngest sibling was six months old at the time of the accident. We had health insurance through Sky West Airlines for most of my childhood, but it was cancelled when my youngest sister was sixteen years old.

My mother now works two jobs to make ends meet for just herself. I have one brother in college for a degree as a firefighter, one in the Navy stationed in England and a sister who has just finished high school and works full time for a restaurant. I watched after my neighbor’s children since I was ten years old. I saved money in order to buy school clothes and supplies so I wouldn’t be as much of a strain on my family. During high school I worked for the state of Montana during my junior year. During my senior year, I worked for a car dealership and a western retail stare, at the same time. I am not afraid of hard work.

The loss of my father was devastating. He was my best friend and I was “daddy’s little girl”. Every day I wonder and hope that I make him proud. I’m especially saddened that my younger siblings never got to know him. He was a kind, loving and deeply spiritual person, who would give the shirt off his back to help anyone. My mother is the same way. She took in foster children that no one else could, and gave them a better life while they were with us.

I am trying to fund as much of my college education on my own, because I feel that my mother has done enough for me. I am an adult. I work a full time job, and make payments on a mobile home in which I live. I made the Dean’s list my first term in college and my goal is to continue to make it until I graduate. I have become a stronger, dedicated, and compassionate person due to my father’s death. I experienced first hand the effects of a family’s loss and I saw the effect my father’s death had on so many. I want to earn the same respect as he had during and after his life. I want my life to carry the same significance in which his did.

Would you like to place a donation to help support the LIFE Lessons Scholarship Fund? Click here.

Share this