While everyone else is ashamed to publicly admit that they have debts and loans, one student was proud to announce to the world that he has survived college by borrowing money from a lot of people – and his honest post has gone viral, inspiring many people to strive hard to reach their dreams even if it means also getting into debt from time to time just to achieve it.
In his post, Christian Lopez acknowledged that he isn’t graduating with honors like the people who had recently gone viral on Facebook but he still wants to share his story to inspire those who are like him, struggling to finish his studies and trying to survive college by borrowing money from a lot of people.
Christian shared that he and his sister had to do all they can to survive, even if that means borrowing money and buying/selling stuff to get through each semester. Their mother had passed away and while their father works in Saudi, he could not send them money regularly and there was even a time when they received nothing for 6 months because of the crisis that Saudi experienced.
According to Christian, he tried almost everything just to survive college – including swallowing his pride so he could borrow money from friends and relatives. His friends also give him food from time to time. There are also times when he had to resort to borrowing from loan sharks just so he could take his exams.
When everything else fails, he voluntarily goes out of the room when the exam starts so he wouldn’t have to be called out by the professor for not having an exam permit.
“May time na di talaga ako pumapasok kase walang wala talaga. Yung tipong pag gising ko tulala tapos isip ng isip. May oras pa na binibigyan ako ng classmate ko ng pera para lang may pangkain ako. Pero madalas, di talaga ko nakakapag exam dahil mahigpit ang school sa policy na “No permit No Exam” pag ganyan lahat na ng pwede utangan i memessage ko na kase pwede ako bumagsak once na hindi talaga ko makahabol sa exam. Nakakahiya na minsan kailangan mo pa lumabas ng room na kusa para di kana tawagin at tanungin kung nasan ang resibo mo. Swerte na lang pag pwede pakiusapan ang prof. Minsan napapaisip din ako. Pano kung kung may magulang ako na katulong at gagabay na gagawa ng paraan sa mga problema namin?” he wrote on Facebook.
(There were times I did not go to school because I was so broke. Those moments when you wake up and start thinking so much. There were times that some of my classmates will give me money for my meals. Many times I did not take the exams because the school’s “No permit No Exam” policy. During these cases you’ll have to find someone willing to lend money so you can catch up for the exam. Sometimes I have to leave the classroom to avoid embarrassment in case I would be asked to produce the receipt for the exam fee. You’re lucky if the professor will listen to your plea.)
Each time their father sends money, Christian would use it to pay off as much debt as he could to ensure that he could borrow from these people again in times of need – and the cycle continued until, finally, he was able to graduate!
Feeling wonderful over what he had accomplished and thankful to the people who helped him through, Christian shared his story on Facebook, not expecting that it would go viral because he wasn’t graduating with honors – but people were inspired with his story! To date, the post has gained close to 70.4k shares, more than 365k likes, and over 47k comments.
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