Graduation trip for our son

David Wright Start Date: Aug 28, 2023 - End Date: Feb 27, 2024
  • Switzerland
  • Jamaica

My Travel Story

by: David Wright Start Date: Aug 28, 2023 - End Date: Feb 27, 2024
Our son is in his senior year and we have for years wanted to take him on a big trip for his graduation. We kept trusting that when the time came, we would be able to. Unfortunately, the world seems to have worked against us.

I lost my job a few years ago when the small startup I worked for began to flounder. I went a whole year without full time employment. It destroyed us financially. We burned through our savings, cashed out retirement fund early just to live and burned through that, maxed out our credit cards and eventually had to file bankruptcy. 

We were at rock bottom. By the grace of God, I eventually found a good job and we've been slowly building back ever since. The bankruptcy finally rolled off our credit history, although our rating score stays low. We are homeowners now, but we barely get by paycheck to paycheck. There is no retirement fund, there is no savings account, we're lucky to get enough groceries in the house. I thank God for the good job I have, I remain grateful, but there just has never been room in our budget to put away for a vacation.

Now our son is quickly approaching his graduation and we're frustrated and heartbroken. He's never been out of the country and he's never been on a cruise. A winter getaway on a tropical cruise seems like an impossible dream, but equally appealing is the idea of going somewhere like Switzerland or Bavaria in southern Germany, to see a part of Europe we otherwise are likely to never see.

He's largely unaware of the scope of our hardships, we've done all we could to give him the best life we possible. But now it doesn't seem likely we will be able to give him the senior trip we long talked about. It feels like another life defeat; the ghost of our past coming back for one more victory against us. My wife and I have felt trapped by losing all our finances years ago. Praise God, we've rebuilt enough to get by, but a big vacation would be a sweet, sweet way to mark the end of our son-- our only child-- living under our roof.

Plese consider helping me give my family a trip we can always remember, as we get ready to send a sharp young man out into the world. 




  • Switzerland
  • Jamaica