Finished fundraising!

“We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.” - Hilaire Belloc

So I have finally raised over £5,400 for my gap year. Words cannot describe how amazing this is, and what a relief it was to get that final cheque in the post! It's a huge weight off my shoulders and it has still not sunk in yet, even though it's been over 2 weeks. Everyone is saying to me "Oh my goodness, that's incredible, you must be so proud of yourself" etc, but actually...it's not felt like such a big deal. Sorry to be a downer on everyone... Everyone thinks (me included) that fundraising 5 and a half grand is going to be a massive task, I'm never going to manage it before I go away, stress stress stress will I even be allowed to go away (this is what Mum was thinking until 2 weeks ago). And I'm not going to lie, it did take some hard work. But nowhere near as much as I thought it would take. I heard some horror stories of people not finishing and having to frantically fundraise during their exams and try to juggle revision with planning events. I did not want that to be me, and I tried my best not to be. And, miraculously, I did it. I think a big part of what I raised came from my ceilidh, and another even bigger part from trusts. I was not relying at all on trusts; in fact, I'd almost forgotten about them until about a month ago. I was sitting at about £3,000, and was thinking of other events I'd better organise to raise the next £2,500. I was hoping to have another bagpack since my one in January was so successful; I was hoping to organise a cake sale at school at some point; I was organising an abseil down the Forth Rail Bridge in June (I am still doing that, just to clarify...more info will come soon when all the details are finalised!). And then lots of trusts seemed to have had meetings in March/April which then came flooding in; I got about £1,000 one week. Anyway enough about that, I'm just really glad I've done it now and can relax a bit and concentrate on my upcoming exams!

Heather <3