two more pieces to the puzzle.

besides all of the debt i have to get rid of, there are a couple more major financial pressures that i have to address soon.

the first one is law school. i know, i know—i’m already overeducated. but law school has been a dream of mine since i was a child, and while i don’t want to be a corporate attorney or anything like that, i would like to be able to work on cases that affect my field.

once i finish law school, my days as a student will be 110% done. i can’t think of anything else i could possibly want to study. i will have every drop of the education i need to do anything in this world i would ever want to do.

sam wants to return to the states after a year or so and work on a ph.d. i want to go to law school at the same school where he wants to pursue his doctorate.

according to the website of the law school i want to go to, law school will cost approximately $32,649, including estimated room and board, books and supplies, and personal and transportation expenses. i would like to be able to pay for it without taking out any more loans, but i know that’s a tall order.

heck, everything i’m attempting to do right now is a tall order.

have i mentioned that i have terrific parents?

well, i do.

don’t get me wrong, we have our disagreements. but overall, i could not ask for better parents. they are loving, supportive, caring—basically the best parents a kid could ever ask for.

i’ll probably talk about them more in a later blog entry, but i bring up my parents because my second impending financial obligation has to do with them (not including the money i owe my mother).

see, my mother has always dreamed of going to italy. i studied abroad in italy during college, and i came home raving about the beauty, the food, the culture, the art, pretty much everything about italy. since then, a trip to italy has been paramount on my mother’s to-do list. “before i die, i have to go to italy,” she says.

my dad, on the other hand, hates to travel. he just prefers to stay at home. but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to give my mom everything she dreams of. so, a couple of months ago, he approached me and asked me if i would be able to accompany my mom on a trip to italy next year. may of next year, to be exact.

he is going to pay for everything for her—he is going to buy her airplane ticket and then give her money to spend however she wants. he is going to present all of this to her at christmas of this year, and then my mom and i will spend the next five months planning, making hotel reservations, etc.

this trip will cost around $3,000. technically, of course, i really cannot afford to pay my way. but i don’t want to say no. i don’t want to tell my dad that i don’t have the money, and i really don’t want my mom to not get to go to italy, because my dad simply will not go. my dad has worked so hard to save to give this trip to my mother. so even though i have already been to italy and this is probably the least financially opportune time for me to be attempting to return, i will cobble together the money, and i will go, because it is my mom’s dream. also, my mom and i have always been great traveling buddies, and this just might be our last traveling hurrah together before i am a married woman.

so there it is. yet more outlandish, crazy goals.

you may say i’m a dreamer…but i’m not the only one.