Making it Happen

Erin Hagan 02/03/2016

Making It Happen

What are some of your biggest goals? Graduating college? Finding your perfect soulmate? Traveling the world? Making a family? Buying a home? Losing weight? Owning a business?

Here at Upstate Family Resource Center, we are setting goals with clients in our community in order to help them reach financial stability. Some goals may be simple while others may be a bit more challenging to achieve. However, no matter the challenge we want everyone to realize that anything can be achieved if they only set their mind to it. It all begins with determination and a plan. But what do we do when our goal(s) fail?

I remember graduating high school and having a big goal of being a respiratory therapist in the future. So off to college I went. I was prepared with books, scrubs, a stethoscope, and anything else this program would require of me. I was on top of the world and no one could stop me. I was learning new things daily about this career path I had chosen and loving every minute of it. Until something changed and my dream was shattered. We began clinical's and working with patients who weren’t going to survive. We started working with premature babies whose lives were hanging in the balance. It was just too much to take on. I got attached to these patients easily and when their life was over here on earth it was so overwhelming to me. So I made the hard decision to withdraw from my classes because I knew I couldn’t take that stress at work every day. Sometimes life throws you curve balls and you have to make the decision to pick up your boot straps and keep pressing on. So after this happened I began setting new goals for myself and today I am happy with that hard decision I had to make.

So the best thing to keep in mind is setting a goal in life has no limits. Never be afraid to better yourself or your family. Make it happen and if it doesn’t happen, keep moving forward anyway. 

"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude" -Thomas Jefferson 

Is it really February already? Where has January gone? It must be everything at the Center keeping us on our toes that has allowed the time to fly by.

 In January, UFRC signed up to be a part or Rummage for a Reason. Rummage for a Reason is a cooperative fundraising event coordinated by Uptown Sertoma Club benefiting participating nonprofits (like us!). We will be selling new and like-new items to help raise money for the Center. So mark your calendars for Rummage for a Reason begins Friday, February 26th from 6-8 pm with a Pre-sale (tickets $5) and the Public Sale begins 8 am Saturday February 27th (location TBA), so check back in for information on some really great items! 

UFRC is set up to host a poverty simulation that will give anyone a chance to go through an experience of living in poverty. The simulation is a real life situation that will take two hours for you to live out you life’s story in poverty. This simulation will take place at the end of March. UFRC also took a trip down to Vocational Rehab. We learned about the resources available to help individuals with disabilities including physical and mental impairment to find jobs in the Spartanburg area. We are very excited about this partnership and being able to have a resource like Vocational Rehab to help our families thrive!

February looks to be an equally busy month! Our VITA program starts off tomorrow! VITA stands for Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, and is a group of volunteers that will file taxes for free for an income of up to $54,000. For more information read our post below or call the Center! We are also looking to have our new website finished by the end of the month. We are uploading content and helping create a dynamite new look that everyone will enjoy!

Comment below on something you would like to see on our new website!