Help Serena After Losing Her Mother

My name is Serena, and I am a local 17-year-old high school senior. Recently, I have been working to provide for myself because I've lost both of my parents unexpectedly.

 

 In October, my mom was admitted to Northside hospital, and was diagnosed with a rare genetic Duodenal Cancer. A week later the progression came back as Stage 4. We thought my mom had months left and that she would be here to watch me turn 18, but not long after being told it was incredibly advanced, my mom's heart had stopped, and she was put life support. As her only child, I promised my mom to follow her wishes and I had to take my only parent off of life support. And in 2016, my dad passed away on Christmas morning.

 

I am incredibly heartbroken as I’ve lost both of my parents without warning, but with these incredibly difficult loses I was left with a lot of responsibilities. I’m a full time senior in high school. I'm in my school's mastery chorus, a captain of the basketball cheer team, and enrolled in several college classes.  On top of my academic responsibilities, I also work at Chick Fil A after school and on the weekends.

 

Outside of my normal responsibilities I’ve picked up hours at my job, and I work hard to support myself.  I didn't realize how costly it is to manage and function as an adult, and I wasn't aware of all of the expenses my mom paid for me.

I am incredibly conscious of how I balance my finances, and I have even gone as far as calculating how many hours I need to work each month, per week, to meet the demands of my expenses. Any donation, graciously given would go towards rent, gas, food, costs for my senior year, and to help with college tuition.

I've accepted all the help I can use and have been working with the people that have offered to assist me. I've been working with some legal guides on having my friend Tressie's mom, Tammy Polk, being deemed as my legal guardian. Our long-term plan is to get caught up on my bills, and to set the rest of the rest of the donations aside for when it is needed. I plan to keep working hard at Chick Fil A, and to continue to save where I can. I hope to attend college next August at KSU. I'm unsure of what career I want to pursue, but I have been thinking about going into the medical field or becoming a high school teacher.