#I had like the worst couple of weeks after making the quiz LOL
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drivebypainter · 4 days ago
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Hi! I love your sv peak assignment quiz (I got qian cao) 😁
I'm really curious about what some of the most common answers to the questions were though!!! Is there any way of seeing the responses? Would be willing to share? I've gotta know- was there a six balls sweep?????
Awww thank you <3333
Unfortunately though, the website doesn't let me see what the most common answers are :( However I can infer through that stats I can see and basically what fandom favorites are from popular tags on tumblr- what were most likely the common choices!
This is the stats on which peaks were chosen the most.
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And as you can see Qian Cao, Hao Chi, Qiong Ding, and An Ding Peaks are currently the top four popular peaks! (also insane that 1k people took this quiz LMAO).
The reason why these peaks are the highest are likely because they have the most "passive" or "morally good" answers when it comes to the situation questions.
But, lets not get carried away! We are here for Six Balls!!
Q: "Which obscure SVSSS side character do you like the most?"
You get 6 possible choices for an answer:
A(1): "Antelope Demoness (A young demoness who looks after SQQ when he is kidnapped by Tianlang-jun)"
It is unlikely a lot of people picked this because she has no name (thus no real tag for her on tumblr or on any site) and I doubt many people remembered her. (Though picking her did give you a point towards Qiong Ding- the 3rd most popular result)
A(2): "Six Balls (The young demon who gives SQQ Liu Mingyan's sword tassel)"
Six Balls!! While the fandom behind Six Balls is small, he is definitely considered a fan favorite by the more dedicated SVSSS fans! (also if you picked this one you got one point towards An Ding, An Ding being top 4 in the popular results).
A(3): "LBH's Mother (The old washer woman who takes care of a young LBH)"
Now LBH's mother despite being technically nameless would be a relatively popular choice because of how often she shows up in fanfiction, fanart of younger binghe, and popular fanon ideas in the fandom <3 (Also her choice gave you a point towards Hao Chi which is the SECOND highest result!)
A(4): Yang Yixuan (The young man who helps SQQ, LQG, and MQF during the Jin Lan City arc)
Another fan favorite and he shows up for longer then a paragraph in the books! Yang Yixuan also has a pretty dedicated fan base, with lots of fanfiction either directly dedicated to him (via ships or little character studies) or involving him in some way (I.e. background/support character)! So I can imagine a lot of people choosing this option! (Also choosing him gives you a point towards Qian Cao Peak- which is the highest ranked result!)
A(5): The Unnamed Ku Xing Peak Lord (He is mentioned to have a harsh temper!) 
I dont really see a lot of people picking this guy, after all he is both nameless and barely shows up in canon- not only that he seems to be quite harsh! (Also if you chose him your points would go into both Qing Jing and Suan Ming- both relatively low on the popular results)
A(6): Ji Jue (A disciple during LQG's generation who fights SQQ outside of a brothel)
Another character I dont really see people picking, despite the fact he has a name, he doesn't seem that cool... plus picking a fight with a fan favorite like Shen Qingqiu..?? Yikes! (And yet again picking this option would not get you into a super popular peak based on results).
So basically to boil this all down, I think most people either picked Luo Binghe's Adopted Mother, Six Balls, or Yang Yixuan!
Also we could probably just settle this by running a poll.. oops!
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mcwriting · 4 years ago
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lab partners
Um pls be advised that I wrote Tom as a lil soft nerdy college boy and it's a lil angsty at one point but I promise it has a sweet ending :)
Ship: Soft!College!Nerd!Tom Holland x Reader
Word Count: 2383
Warnings: some angsty vibes, cussing
Not a warning but I talk about chemistry some so sorry if you're not a chem person lol
You shuffled through your chemistry notebook, trying to decide the most efficient way to get all of the necessary supplies before the experiment started.
That would, of course, require your lab partner to actually show up.
Tom was never actually late to the chemistry lab, but it wasn't unusual for him to show up with only a minute or so to spare.
As if on cue, he clambered through the door, taking the essentials from his backpack before stuffing it into the cubby next to yours. You pretended not to notice him as he slid onto the stool next to you.
"Mornin' sunshine," he said cheerily, setting down his gloves, goggles, and notebook. "What're you up to?"
"Just reading over my notes, as usual," you answered, closing the notebook and sliding it away from you.
"I'm hoping we can get out of this lab quickly today. Woke up late and didn't have time for breakfast," you yawned. "Hopefully they'll still have muffins at the dining hall when we're done, I'm craving banana nut."
You heard it as soon as you said it, and Tom's face lit up.
"I know of a banana with some nut you can have," he started, but you gave him a shove and quieted him.
"Shut up, you total weirdo," you laughed, hoping the other lab groups hadn't heard him. Couldn't let anyone think you and Tom actually had something going on.
Not that it mattered, but you didn't want to give off the wrong impressions. Maybe one day someone would take an interest and ask you out, excluding Tom, of course. That would be weird.
Not weird in a sense that you wouldn't say yes, though. It's just that after being lab partners for almost a year now he was just a friend and you were too close to really...
Oh forget it.
"Okay, okay." Tom conceded, hands raised. "But seriously, there is a granola bar in my bag if you want to eat it after we get the lab started. I'll watch the stuff and you can go in the hall."
You grinned. He may be an idiot, but at least he was a sweet one.
Really, though, he wasn't that much of an idiot. Not in the booksmarts sense. He definitely knew his stuff when it came to all of the concepts you'd learned.
More often than not it was you going to him to ask how to do certain problems or compare homework answers.
He was especially good with titrations, the experiment you were doing today.
You prepared to answer him about the granola bar when the TA started class.
"Okay, guys. We aren't having a quiz this week and you should already know the basics of this experiment, so you can get started with it as soon as you get your things together. The acids are under hood 1, pH meters are over there, and the indicator and solid base are on the counter. Let me know if you have any questions."
With that, you quickly got to work, splitting up to get things done faster.
The goal of the experiment was to calculate the concentration of an unknown acid based on how concentrated of a base solution you made.
After a previous incident that caused quite a large percent error (and wasted perfectly good product), you had kicked Tom off of weighing duties, instead leaving him to measure out the volume of liquid acid needed.
You were adding water to the solid base in a beaker when you heard a voice say "ah shit" under his breath. Any time you heard Tom say that, you knew that meant something was up.
When you turned, you found that Tom had spilled some acid on the counter, just a few inches from your laptop.
"Dude!" you exclaimed, grabbing it and setting it on a higher platform quickly. "Am I gonna have to take you off all measuring duties?"
Tom gave you a worried look.
"I'm sorry! I was trying to add it to the beaker from the graduated cylinder but some of it stuck to the side and spilled."
You furrowed your brows.
"Wait why did you measure it in the cylinder? You know the beaker has lines on it, right? We just have to factor the error into our calculations."
Tom went to facepalm, but stopped when he remembered the gloved hand he'd raised had acid on it.
"Now you remind me..." he muttered.
"Why don't you go waste what's left and clean this up while I measure some fresh into the beaker," you smiled patiently, knowing that small mistakes like this flustered him easily.
When you came back, Tom was washing the burette with a few milliliters of the base you had made over the sink. You looked down and saw a couple of drops had fallen from the base beaker.
"Well lets just hope that neutralized the acid he spilled," you thought as you went to wet a paper towel.
He saw you wiping up the spot when he came back to set up the burette.
"What are you doing? I already got the acid."
"I um... I spilled a little drop of my own. No biggie," you lied, hoping he wouldn't press it.
"I spilled some of the base, didn't I?" he asked flatly. You cringed but nodded. "Great. This really is my day so far."
You felt bad. Sure Tom could be clumsy or a little slow when it came to "common sense," but usually it was just one small thing towards the end of the lab, definitely not successive.
"Hey, look at it this way, the only 'bad' thing you did today was spill some reagents. And you already got it out of your system before we even started!"
"I'm not sure that's helping as much as you think it is, but thanks for the sentiment, y/n."
You scrunched your nose at his answer, but moved on, wanting to get the first titration done quickly, since you'd need to repeat it 2 more times.
Thankfully the first went by without a hitch. The numbers all seemed to be in order and it wasn't long before you were starting the experiment again to collect new data.
A while had passed, however, and your hunger was starting to make itself apparent. You tried to talk to Tom to distract yourself, but your stomach started growling enough that even he took notice.
"Seriously, y/n I'll get that granola bar for you if you want it," he offered again.
"No, I'll be okay. It looks like we only need to take a few more data points so we'll be done with the third trial in no time. Thanks, though."
As expected, you finished the second quickly and moved on to the third.
"Hey I'm going to clean up some of our glassware real quick if you don't mind taking measurements," you said, wanting to get ahead on cleanup so you could finally grab a meal. Tom nodded and you took some beakers to the sink.
As you were drying them, you saw Tom give you a nervous look from your station.
Oh no.
You quickly shoved the glassware in a drawer and walked over to find the solution had changed colors and all of the base drained from the burette.
"Tom what happened?" you asked, afraid that this meant you would need to do the trial again.
He looked worried as he held up a plastic piece. The stopper had broken off.
"Tom what the hell! We were almost out of here!"
"I know, I know, and I'm sorry but maybe the TA won't make us do it again? I was like.. basically to the endpoint."
You called the TA over, who looked at your data and sighed.
"Look, I know this is your last run but you've still got some base left, so why don't you do it one more time. You two are still a whole trial ahead of everyone else so it's not like you'll have to stay late," she said.
Internally, you were fuming, but thanked the TA and waited for her to leave.
"Why can't you just do something right for once!" you breathed, exasperated. You felt tears forming out of frustration.
Tom looked at you with glassy eyes of his own and you immediately felt like the worst person in the world.
You knew the hunger was getting to you but it didn't excuse your behavior. You tried to soften your expression.
"Oh, Tom, I'm sorry. I- I didn't mean it like that-"
"Like what, y/n? What other possible way could you have meant that? I get it, I'm a fuckup. Why don't you just do the last one and I'll write down the numbers. Surely I can do that right," he bit back, getting up to get you a new burette to replace the broken one.
You did the rest of the lab in silence. You'd tried saying something here or there, but he wouldn't even look at you, instead copying numbers into both his and your notebooks.
Your guilt had made you almost forget about your hunger, but it was still tugging at the back of your mind.
When you were done, most of the other groups were finishing up as well, so you and Tom wordlessly split up the tasks of cleaning things up to work around them.
You were putting the smaller glass pieces back into a casing that fit in a drawer when Tom went to grab his backpack and put away his notes.
As you did the same, you saw Tom's hand move before he zipped the bag and headed out quickly.
Left on the counter next to you was the granola bar he'd offered up earlier.
Now you felt even shittier. Here you were lashing out at the guy and he was still trying to take care of you.
You zipped up your bag as quickly as possible and stuffed the snack into your pocket as you ran out of the lab, hoping to catch up with him.
It was still another half hour or so until the normal class change, so the hallway and rest of campus was mostly empty. You easily spotted him opening up the door to your left.
"Tom, wait!"
He glanced back but didn't stop, stepping out into the sunshine.
You ran that way, bursting through the door as Tom was stomping away.
"Tom! Please just listen!" you exclaimed, running to catch up to him. He didn't stop, instead picking up the pace.
"Why should I listen to you? I am keenly aware of what you think of me."
"Because I don't really feel that way, Tom! You're not a fuckup."
Finally he stopped under a large tree.
"I may not be that but apparently I can't do anything right so take your pick on what's worse."
He looked angry and hurt, justifiably so. You grabbed his arms and looked him in the eyes.
"Tom, I am so, so sorry for what I said. I was hungry and frustrated and not at all patient with you. We all have bad days, and I shouldn't have forgotten that in the heat of the moment."
"That's the thing! My bad days are every day! I can't get through my day without tripping, breaking something, spilling reagents all over the lab! You weren't wrong about me and that's what freaks me out the most."
"But, I was! You aren't that person I mean-"
"Y/n just accept it. I've had girls break up with me because of this. My own roommates, hell my family, get pissed at me constantly because I can't do things right. I was naive enough to think that I was doing something right with you but here we are."
Tom hung his head before realizing what the implications of what he had said, popping back up to look at you with wide eyes. You could only smile.
"I like to think you were doing something right with me all along. I'm the one who messed everything up today. Tom, you are one of the sweetest, most genuine people I know. You're funny, hella smart, adorable. I don't deserve an incredible guy like you in my life. I mean, after what I said, you were still willing to give me your food? I can't think of anyone else who would do that for me."
Tom perked up some, a grin coming to his face.
"You needed it a lot more than me. But do you really mean that? You feel that way?"
"Of course I do." You paused, studying his face.
After a few seconds you reached up to grab his shoulders and kissed his cheek, then pulled him into a hug.
"I really hope you can forgive me. I truly think the world of you," you whispered.
He pulled back and brushed a strand of hair from your face. Both of you had watery eyes but grinned. He nodded, the did the unexpected.
He pressed a gentile kiss to your lips.
You both let out a chuckle in both relief and nervousness as you pulled away. You wiped your eyes as he did the same. There was a lull in conversation until you remembered something.
You patted your pockets, finding and fishing out the granola bar. You held it out to his and he gave you a confused expression.
"I, um. I think you should keep this for now."
"What do you mean? I gave it to you to eat."
"Well yeah but it's just... how would you like to join me in the dining hall instead? Call it a date, call it a post-lab meal. Either way, I'm hungry and would really like you to join me."
He thought about it for a second, but finally smiled and took the bar from your hand, sliding it in the side of his backpack.
"Come on, I could use a snack too," he answered, sticking an elbow out for you to wrap your arm in. "You think they'll have your banana nut muffin still?"
"I don't really care about that anymore, I think I've got a perfect muffin right here. But we should probably still hurry before the lines get too long."
A/N: I'm sorry but writing soft Tom was ??? Precious? I made myself feel so bad for him and he literally has never been, nor will ever be, in this situation but I mean come on.
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cali-holland · 5 years ago
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Risky Quizness- Tom Holland One Shot
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Pairing: Tom Holland X Reader
Requested by Anon: meeting tom at one of the pub quizzes he goes to at his local pub, he and his mates need more people on their team to sign up, so they asks you and a couple of your friends to join, you and him connect. Xxoo
Prompt: When you meet Tom at a pub quiz, sparks fly between the two of you.
Word Count: 1800
A/N: Huge shoutout to @saysomethingspiderman​ for being a major help with this one. I’m hella American and never experienced a pub quiz before lol aka brits dont hate me for this
Masterlist   Tom Holland Masterlist
*Gif is not mine*
~~~
“Damn it.” Tom muttered, looking at his phone with a frown.
“What?” Harrison asked, sitting next to him at the table with their two pints.
“Harry just texted me. He’s sick.” He replied. “And Sam’s with his girlfriend and you know mum would never let me take Paddy.”
“So it’s just us then?” The blond let out a sigh.
Pub quizzes weren’t much fun with two people. Normally, they’d go with Tuwaine, Harry, and Sam- sometimes even Sam’s girlfriend would tag along, but Tuwaine had a family thing come up, and now the twins had bailed.
“We could always try to find someone to join our team? Right?” Tom offered weakly, and his friend shrugged.
“We’d have to find people willing to actually join us.” He stated and Tom nodded. The pub was already filling up with hopefuls for the pub quiz, there was no way they’d find others to team up with them-
“You can’t do a pub quiz with two people! It just doesn’t work like that!” You let out a frustrated groan as you passed by Tom’s table with your friend. And just like that, a light bulb went off in Tom’s head as he jumped after you.
“Hey, wait!” He called out and you and your friend paused, turning to him skeptically as you held your drinks.
“You only have two people for the quiz? My mate and I are also a team of two. Did- did you want to, maybe, join us?” Tom asked, realizing how stupid it sounded to ask that out loud- to ask a couple strangers to be on his team for a pub quiz. Your friend looked at you and you contemplated it for a moment.
“Sure, but we better win.” You stated, following a triumphant Tom back to his table (much to Harrison’s surprise). You sat down in an empty chair, leaving one open between you and Harrison, and Tom slid into it. 
“I’m Tom, and this is Harrison.” He introduced the two of them.
“Y/N, this is Jess.” You replied with a smile. The quizmaster quickly made his way around the pub, handing out a sheet of paper to each of the teams.
“What should our name be?” Tom asked, looking at the paper in front of him.
“Risky Quizness.” You said simply and Jess let out a laugh beside you.
“Risky Quizness?” Tom and Harrison both repeated, and you nodded.
“Every time we’ve used that name, we’ve won the pub quiz.” You stated.
“That’s because the only time we’ve won it was our name!” Jess added, and you rolled your eyes at her.
“We still won. Maybe we wouldn’t have been second last time if our name was Risky Quizness, not Universally Challenged.” You picked up the pencil from the table and grabbed the paper from in front of Tom.
“Risky Quizness, like the Tom Cruise movie?” Tom asked you, a small smile on his face.
“I’m writing it!” You announced and Jess groaned, but the boys just laughed.
“In case you couldn’t tell, she runs the quiz.” She teased.
“Shove off.” You groaned, “I’m competitive.”
“How many of these have you won?” Tom inquired. He honestly wasn’t sure how well he and Harrison would do with their usual team; by the end of the night, he would have always had enough beers to be a bit hazy on how many he actually knew on his own. He wanted to do well though because who didn’t love winning? And he also may have wanted to impress you a little.
“Just the one.” You mumbled, not wanting to fully admit it, “But we keep coming in second. There’s this group at our usual place called Let’s Get Quizzical and they win every single time. So we’re here in hopes that they won’t be.”
“What about you two?” Your friend asked.
“We’ve won a few times, but honestly, I don’t remember if I got any of them right.” He laughed.
“So, it’s up to you then, blondie.” You joked, and Harrison smiled with a grimace. “You two are lucky you’re attractive.”
Before either could respond, the quizmaster began to speak, announcing the general knowledge round. Some were easy questions like name the longest river in the U.K., complete the line from Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” (which you knew immediately), and how many hearts does an octopus have (that one you and Harrison got in a heated debate about whether it was two or eight, when Jess stepped in as the marine biologist to tell you it was three). 
The next couple rounds went by smoothly, the four of you working together to make sure you got the right answers. By the time you were on the final round, the movies round, you felt fairly confident that your answers were like 90% right (you still weren’t sure if you trusted Tom and Harrison in saying that the DeLorean in Back to the Future had to hit 88 to time travel because you definitely thought it was 85 like the year the first movie came out).
“Which Star Wars character gets namechecked in Indiana Jones: Temple of Doom?” The quizmaster asked, making the four of you pause.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that movie.” Harrison stated.
“Yoda?” Tom suggested, thinking it was a fairly iconic Star Wars character.
“It’s Obi-Wan.” You said as you wrote down the answer. “I just watched the movie like two days ago, and trust me, you’re not missing out if you haven’t seen it.”
“Two hours I’ll never get back.” Jess shook her head with a sigh.
“That bad?” Tom asked and you both nodded.
“The worst.” You shuddered just thinking about it. 
Though that question stumped Tom and Harrison, it wasn’t until the last question of the round that you really didn’t know the answer.
“Last question. This sequel film is the 10th highest grossing superhero movie of all time.” The quizmaster read off the question, and you turned to the rest of your team, unsure of the right answer.
“I don’t know? Captain America?” You asked, wracking your brain for any good superhero sequel films you’d seen. You watched Harrison try to nudge Tom inconspicuously, who was blushing beside you. He mumbled something to you, but you couldn’t hear it at all. “What movie?”
“Uh, Spider-Man: Far From Home.” He spoke up louder, the blush on his cheeks darkening as he shot Harrison a glare.
“Oh, right, never saw that.” You replied, and Tom laughed nervously.
“You really never saw it?” He asked.
“Nope.” You shook your head, “I don’t even think I saw the first one, honestly. Not that big of a Spider-Man fan.” As you wrote down the answer Tom had given you, you missed him sending a look back to his friend, trying his best not to be slightly offended by your words.
“You should watch them. They’re really good movies.” Tom said with an encouraging smile when you looked back up at him, ignoring Harrison’s kick under the table. It wasn’t until then that he realized you had absolutely no clue who he was, and it was the best thing ever for him; you were treating him like just another random guy who invited you to join his pub quiz team.
The quizmaster announced the end of the quiz, and everyone went over their answers. Much to your familiar disappointment, your team ended up second again.
“Maybe, it’s just you.” Tom teased you as Harrison and Jess went to go get more drinks.
“Rude.” You playfully scoffed, though you were still a bit upset by the loss. “Maybe if you had known that Wisconsin was the dairy state then we would have won.”
“You didn’t even know that one!” He refuted. It was true- the American geography round just about wiped your team out. Tom shifted a bit closer to you, leaning on his arm, flexing it almost, “So you think you’ll be back at this pub for next week?”
“I think I could be convinced to return.” You replied slyly. Before Tom could ask for your number, you already had your phone unlocked, sliding it over to him. “Here.”
“You already knew.” He chuckled, handing you his phone in return. You both typed in your numbers and switched phones back.
“That one Spider-Man question. How did you know that?” You asked, thinking back to all the sigh’s the erupted throughout the pub when the answer was revealed- most had gotten it wrong, so how did Tom know so quickly that he was right?
“I just know.” Tom shrugged in an effort to play it off.
“You know off the top of your head the 10th highest grossing superhero movie of all time?” You eyed him suspiciously.
“They said it was a sequel, so it had to be either that or Incredibles 2.” He joked, but you weren’t too amused. He leaned in closer to you, creating an intimate distance between your two faces, “Can I tell you a secret?”
“What, are you Spider-Man or something?” You asked teasingly, but his smile never faltered.
“Yeah, I am.” Tom replied. You laughed before you realized the complete seriousness in his voice and his face.
“Seriously?” You managed through a fit of laughter.
“I really am! And you said you didn’t like my movie.” He teased.
“I said I never saw it.” You corrected him. “That has to be cheating for it to be your movie as the answer.”
“No, it definitely isn’t.” He shook his head with a laugh.
“How much did it gross? How much?” You asked, wiggling your eyebrows at him jokingly, “You check the box office daily, don’t you?”
“I do not!” He protested, chuckling, “And it made over a billion, thank you very much.”
“Did you drop your pants for that to happen or something?” You quipped, and his face heated up. You gasped, “You didn’t!”
“It was just for one scene and I had my underwear on!” Tom insisted, “You’d know that if you saw the film.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll watch it- both of them.” You laughed.
“How about I quiz you on them next week?” He joked, and you groaned.
“No, that means I’d have to pay attention.”
“Fine, I won’t quiz you on them on one condition.” Tom rested a hand on the back of your chair, leaning in closer to you. You raised your eyebrows at him, telling him wordlessly to continue, “Go on a date with me?”
You nodded, laughing as you spoke, “Yes, but I gotta say, I really thought you were going to make me watch your own movie with you.”
“Trust me, darling, we can do that, too.”
~~~
Tag List: @viagracex​ @theamazingtomholland​ @hellomoveonby​ @heyitsshrez
Tom Tag List: @quaksonhehe​
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Text
Nervous Breakdown // Jay Halstead x Reader
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Photo by @karihighman​
Description: Jay is there when you start to break down.
Words: 1539
Warnings: None
Pairing: Jay x Reader
A/N: So, this I wrote for me. The schedule Reader talks about is my actual schedule. The sign offs are the things I actually need. This was me last night, except I didn’t have someone like Jay to talk me down from my nervous break down, I just had it and then had to be at my clinical this morning (which I’m still at btw lol). But yeah. Hope you enjoy. And if my posting is sporadic in the next month or so, this is why. 
“Come to bed,” Jay told you softly, leaning on the doorframe of your bedroom with his arms crossed over his chest as he looked at you with papers spread across the floor, couch, and coffee table. 
Your movements were frantic as you tried to organize them all, trying to figure out the best system to keep everything together. Every section was chronologically ordered for the online documentation, paper clips holding each stack together. Then, there were the colored sheets that had even more important signatures on them. You had to make sure everything was in order as class was drawing to an end. 
“I’ll sleep when I’m done, Jay,” you snapped at him before closing your eyes and taking a deep breath. “I’m sorry, I just-”
“I know.” He walked over, stepping around the stacks before sitting directly behind you in the only place clear of paper. “Come here.” 
You couldn’t stop yourself from leaning back into his chest, his arms wrapping around you. Grounding you as your mind went a mile a minute. You also couldn’t stop yourself from grabbing your calendar, flipping it open to this month.
“What’s the schedule look like?” His chin rested on your shoulder as he looked at the planner. 
“I have to help with the EMT class Saturday from seven to three. Then I start my shift at work at eight tomorrow night. Then, work Sunday night. So I’m going to try and catch up on some sleep on Sunday. I have my exam in Med Emergencies on Monday. Then, I have an ambulance clinical AM shift at seven. Same on Wednesday. A quiz in Med Emergencies on Thursday. Then, I work Thursday night. Off at eight on Friday morning, but I picked up a shift from two to ten Friday day. Then, ambulance clinical on Saturday AM shift. 
Same with that next Sunday. A quiz in Med Emergencies on the seventeenth. Then work that night. Work the night of the eighteenth, but I’m off at four in the morning instead of my usual eight. Mainly because I have an OR clinical on the nineteenth from seven to three. But then I work that night, off at five on the twentieth because I have an exam in Med Emergencies that day. Ambulance clinical AM shift on the twenty-first. Twenty-second, I have an ER shift from seven to three, then I work that night. Work Sunday night, so I’m going to try to catch up on sleep that day. 
Twenty-fourth I have another exam in Med Emergencies. Ambulance AM shift on the twenty-fifth and sixth. Then, we review for our Final in Med Emergencies, but I work that night. I’ll get off at six to get to my ambulance clinical on the twenty-eight at seven. I work that night, but off at five to get to my Maternal-Fetal Truck shift by eight. 
On the thirtieth, I have an ER shift from three to eleven. The thirty-first, I have my final in Med Emergencies, and then work that night. Off the day of the first, but I work that night. Then, an ER shift at three on the second. Then, I work that night, but I’m going to try to switch shifts just because my ER shift won’t finish until eleven. The third, we have our student evals. The fourth, I’m helping the junior class with their Ops day, and then I have an ambulance clinical that night. Off the fifth, but work that night. Off the sixth, but work that night. Seventh is labor day, so completely free. ER shift on the eighth at three. Then, on the ninth, OR shift at seven.
“After that, I don’t know because we haven’t signed up for our capstone. Which all of this,” you said, motioning to the mess of papers, “is me getting everything in order to make sure I have everything done and what I still need. Because we can’t start capstone until all of our skills check offs are done, and we’ve hit all of our demographics.”
“What do you have left to do for your skills?” That question got you to sigh, putting the planner down and grabbing a notebook. You had to push your glasses back up on your face as you looked down at your messy handwriting. 
“Five peer reviews for pediatric intubations. Two peer reviews for needle cricothyrotomy. Three peer and two instructor reviews for trauma assessment. Five peer reviews for trauma intubations. Two instructor reviews for joint splinting -- which I’m already an EMT, why the Hell do I have to sign off on the BLS stuff again? Same with long-bone. I need one peer review and two instructor for traction splint. Again, BLS bullshit. Seven peer reviews for medical and cardiac scenarios. Eleven peer reviews for IV starts, and one instructor. One instructor for IV piggyback. Five peer reviews for IO. Oh, and another instructor. Three peer for IM injection. Three peer for synchronized cardioversion. One peer for defibrillation. Three peer transcutaneous pacing. Four peer reviews and one instructor for adult team lead scenarios. Five peer reviews and one instructor for pediatric team lead scenarios. Eleven peer reviews for being a team member. Three peer reviews for being a team leader for geriatric scenarios. Six peer and one instructor reviews for adult physical assessments. And finally. Six peer and one instructor review for pediatric assessment,” you read off, letting the paper fall to the ground. 
He held you a little tighter. You felt bad. With all the stress you’d been under for the past month, and with how crazy his job was, the two of you hadn’t gotten to spend a lot of time together. And the next month was going to be even crazier. 
“When are you supposed to start your capstone?” He pressed a kiss to your neck, your eyes fluttering closed in response. 
“They want us to start September Ninth, but I’m going to be the last one who gets to sign up because I’m so far behind! Everyone is going to pick the cool preceptors, and I’m going to get stuck with the ones nobody else wants,” you vented before huffing in frustration. 
It was indeed very frustrating, stressful, and downright annoying that you were so far behind compared to everyone else. That’s what happens when you have to be off for six weeks because you tore your knee. Now, it was a constant game of catch-up. 
“Just breathe when I breathe,” Jay instructed in that calming voice, following his breathing pattern. It got your heart rate down as tears came to your eyes, despite your internal protests. You were on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and it wasn’t going to be pretty.
“Maybe you should email your instructor?” he suggested when you had your breathing under control on your own.
“And have her take me off all my clinicals and reschedule everything? No. No fucking way. I can’t just email her and schedule my nervous breakdown, Jay. She was very clear in first semester that if we took on too much and couldn’t handle it, she’d take us off our clinicals and completely reschedule everything. I can’t do that, Jay. I can’t because then I’ll be even further behind.” You were talking a mile a minute, Jay taking a deep breath behind you. You took the hint and matched your breathing again. 
“Okay, then don’t email her. But, I want you to come to bed right now. It’s two in the morning. You have an ambulance clinical in five hours. You need your sleep. All of this will be waiting for you when you come home tonight,” he insisted. You didn’t want to, but you knew he was right. 
The two of you stood up, walking into the bedroom. You couldn’t help it as you collapsed on the bed with a groan, much more comfortable than the hard floor in the living room. He wasted no time in joining you, pulling you close again. This time, you were able to see his face at least, tracing his features gently with soft fingertips. You missed him. 
“How about we do something Labor Day? Just you and me to destress a bit?” you asked, Jay nodding in agreement before lips met gently. “I miss you.”
“I miss you too,” he said with a soft chuckle, kissing you again. “But you’re almost done. This is the worst of it. After your final, you’re pretty much done with lecture. Capstone is your last hoorah. Then, your tests and you’ll finally be a paramedic after over a year. Doing this through a pandemic. Through all your family crap. I’m proud of you.”
“You really know how to sweet talk a lady,” you joked, resting your head on his chest.
It was the exact thing you needed to hear. Jay always knew what to say. You were so close to being done. Then, you’d be in your dream career. All the hard work was going to be worth it. The thousands of hours in clinicals, the hundreds of hours in class. The countless sleepless nights and caffeine filled days. Yes. It would be all worth it. Just a couple more months to go. And Jay was by your side.
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lovelyirony · 4 years ago
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Hey, would you be open to IronAgent (Phil x Tony)? If yes, from the angst list (because /of course/ I look there first lol) 19: "Why did you wait until I moved on?" If you feel like it. Thanks! <3
never done this one before, but i like it! 
Tony isn’t used to heartbreak. He’s kind of an asshole like that. Or maybe he is used to heartbreak, but he’s not quite used to people admitting that they don’t like him like that. 
Phil Coulson was someone he met while at an orchestra with Pepper and showing up late and getting the wrong seat and falling asleep. 
He was the one who jabbed him awake and explained why the orchestra was so important, and Tony saw how much he could appreciate it, and he wanted more of it. 
So he asked. Phil said yes. And their first date was to a diner where Tony had to give Phil, like, eight quarters for the jukebox. 
He was different from anyone Tony usually saw. Different as in decent, different as in he wore a white button-up shirt nearly every single day, and Tony liked it, but he liked it more when it was a bit wrinkled and Phil broke down and unbuttoned the top two. 
They dated for eleven months and thirty days. They broke up in July. 
In retrospect, Tony can see why. Phil was always interested in specialized security and was one of the best people to stay calm under stress. (Tony joked that it was because of him.) 
Phil calls him in July. Tony is in Malibu, and Phil lives in Chicago, and he won’t allow Tony to pay for a plane or train ticket. 
Now he knows why. 
The phone call is short, mainly because Tony knows that he’s bursting with questions and Phil won’t answer them, because it’s considered rude to ask someone why they don’t want to choose you anymore. 
Tony says okay. He says okay on the phone, which sucks, and it’s...
He calls Rhodey next. 
“You okay?” 
“Probably. Maybe.” 
“You’ll be fine,” Rhodey says, in that tone of voice that Tony usually always trusts, but this time it’s different because Rhodey isn’t with him right now, he’s with his cousin in Florida trying to learn how to handle different beach-themed cocktails. Call it scientific research. 
“Listen,” Rhodey says, “I gotta go. Ben’s taking me to dinner, but call me when you need me, okay?” 
“Got it.” 
He’s not going to do that. 
Phil joined SHIELD. You can’t have personal connections, not really. 
And Tony was as personal as they got, but he was also beneficial. Phil knows that if SHIELD ever caught wind of Tony being his, there would be talk. Talk about “why don’t you convince your boyfriend to get us weapons?” 
“Why don’t you bring Tony Stark over? Let us in on some secrets?” 
He can’t do that to him. 
And relationships...
Best not to think about it. 
It takes longer than thought possible for Tony to get over Phil. In many respects, he might not be. 
But he goes out the next week and makes headlines dancing with all sorts of people and socializing and proving that he can move on. He will move on. He’s already moved on. 
He bitterly hopes that Phil can see it. 
(Phillip Coulson is busy fighting bad guys in a grocery store, but as he dodges a can of peaches being thrown at his head, he sees an overturned magazine rack. And there Tony is, smiling at a girl and-) 
Tony keeps tabs on him, sometimes. He doesn’t often pop up. Tony doesn’t really look into security, because he knows that if he finds out where Phil is, what Phil is doing, it’s all he’s going to think about. And he can’t keep him safe, he can’t keep him protected. 
So he focuses on weapons and business and making sure that Pepper isn’t too pissed off, because it’s like Pompeii 2.0 if that happens. 
-
Coulson is in the office when the break-room TV is turned on and the news is up, and agents are crowding around. 
“Back to work, everyone,” he says, but he stops when he sees the headline. 
Tony Stark Declared Missing after Weapons Demonstration Gone Awry 
He can’t breathe. He feels everything slam down, and he can’t let anyone know it’s all coming down over his head, so he turns off the news. 
“Get focused,” he says. “I know at least one of you is supposed to be talking to our agents stationed in Liberia about a potential 084. Get it done.” 
He goes into his office and stares at a framed picture of a Ferris wheel. 
Just below that, folded up, is Tony kissing his cheek while he laughs. 
And it might be done. 
He wishes it wasn’t done, he wishes that he had never broken up with him. He’s always wished that, every single time he comes into his apartment and Tony’s plans for decorating their apartment when they both came back to Boston (Phil never did) were the talk of the night for many a night. 
He can’t request any special information. He can’t risk it, doesn’t want to risk it. 
Maria still catches him, because she’s Maria. She knows everything. 
“You got personal history with him,” she says over a mutual dinner. She invited him to her house. She didn’t seem like a house person, but then again she also has coasters with embroidered flower bouquets on them, so there’s that. 
“I’m not going to tell you anything about it.” 
“Wasn’t expecting you to. Just wanted to let you know that I know.” 
“And how would you know?” 
Maria smiles, biting into the pizza that she has ordered and Phil hasn’t touched, but still paid half for. 
“Because I’m smart and observant, Coulson.” 
“You can call me Phil, you know.” 
“Nope, rather not. But if you’re not discussing it, then it must have been romantic. I’m surprised you guys dated. For long, if I’m right.” 
“Under a year,” he says. 
“And you’re still this affected?” 
“I broke up with him,” Phil says. “You know why.” 
“You’re the dumbest ever,” Maria says. “You were dating the son of one of the best-known men of all time, and you think that you were putting his life in danger?” 
“When you put it like that, it makes me sound stupid.” 
“You’re not,” Maria says. “You’re smart. But Tony Stark isn’t exactly a saint. He knows how to fight dirty.” 
Tony Stark just flew out of a cave and his first thought is the fact that he really wants a nice burger, and the second thought is that he’s wondered if he’s just invented something revolutionary. 
It’s about two weeks after everything and he’s still finding trouble with his standard mattress that he gets a visit. 
Strategic-Homeland-Whatever. 
They call themselves a private security firm. Tony knows better, has seen better liars. 
But Agent Barton is insistent that security is all they do, and they want to make sure that Tony Stark isn’t a danger to himself. 
(What he really means, most likely, is that SHIELD has caught on to the little fact that his flight suit exists.) 
-
Phil met Obadiah Stane exactly once, and exactly once is the only meeting you really need with a man who is the physical embodiment of an oil spill. 
Barton calls him, says that he needs to get there now, the mission is going wrong. Coulson’s his handler, and as much as he’d like to send Maria or Natasha or literally anybody else, he is worried. 
He finds Dum-E waving frantically, with Tony hunched over a counter and breathing hard, a blue light emanating from his chest. 
“Tony?” 
He turns around wildly, freezing as he looks at Phil. 
“I don’t have time to deal with you,” he pants out, breath ragged. “Move out of my way, and stay out of my way.” 
Phil witnesses Tony in his element. He’s always flown above the rest, but never quite so literally. 
Pepper clutches Tony’s hand and he holds her close, and oh. 
Oh. 
Phil knows he shouldn’t have expected anything. He knows that it’s been years and years since they were dating, since they were each other’s everything and a half. 
But it still kind of hurts when you’re not a choice. 
They turn to look at Coulson. 
“I assume that Clint is yours?” Tony asks. 
“One of them, yes.” 
“He needs to get better about lying, he clearly ate my leftover sandwich.” 
“I’ll...talk to him about that. Everyone okay here?” 
“For now. Need to tie up some loose ends.” 
“I can help with that.” 
“I don’t need it,” Tony says, and Pepper follows his gaze carefully before speaking. 
“We would love the help,” she says, and Phil can tell that she doesn’t know. 
Somehow-and Phil’s not quite sure how-that burns. Tony didn’t tell her about them. It’s egotistical of him, sure, but he kind of wants to be known as a part in Tony’s life. 
SHIELD gets involved. They clean up Stane like he was never there, and there’s a press release about him having a heart attack in his sleep that is clearly not the case, but there are enough pictures of him eating unhealthily that it can kind of make sense when people look at some shitty news source. 
Phil makes flashcards. 
Reminds him of studying days, when he used to quiz Tony on Captain America trivia. 
He stumped him, once. 
Tony doesn’t like that Phil’s back in his life. He doesn’t have to like it. 
But really, it just...
They used to be together. And they didn’t end because it got bad, they ended because Phil had a job and he didn’t want to be a couple because that would somehow ruin things. And Tony got it, really. The board wasn’t exactly pleased that Tony wasn’t hush-hush about his activities. 
“What’s gonna happen, they’re gonna sue me? Ask me to stop?” Tony had asked, laughing. “I don’t give a shit what people think. They rely on me too much to afford to have an opinion cloud their judgment.” 
Phil isn’t like that. 
They danced together. He still remembers Phil’s order for food. 
(Lo Mein with veggies, but he would never eat all of the veggies that were in there. Plus egg rolls.) 
-
“If you just read the flash cards, you should be fine,” Phil says. “Trust me.” 
“You waited to tell me that until I moved on or something?” Tony asks sardonically. 
Tony listened to Phil twice in his life and trusted him. 
The first was six months in, when he said “I love you” while they were lounging on the worst couch that Tony had ever sat in, in an apartment with a leak during rainy days. 
The second was when Phil told him to live his life to his full potential on a short phone call. 
Fool me once, fool me twice, and never again. 
“The truth is...I am Iron Man.” 
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andrewdburton · 5 years ago
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How we raised $10,000+ for a charity (actual metrics)
What happens when you try to raise money for a cause you care about?
Recently, my wife and I held a fundraiser in NYC. We both come from families of immigrants and we wanted to raise money for families being separated at the border. What we’ve seen has made us feel helpless, outraged, and sad. But we also know that we’re in the enviable position of being able to do something about it.
This was the first time we’ve ever raised money for a fundraiser together and I want to share what we learned (plus all the numbers).
VIDEO: My wife and me explaining why we launched this fundraiser
It turns out I LOVE fundraising. I think it’s because…
It’s a cause I care about
I have friends and readers I can share this with
Thanks to having 40,000 customers, I have no fear of asking for money. Especially from IWT readers who asked for a free ticket to my event, and (1) one had spent $10,000 on my products, (2) another worked at Amazon, and (3) a third was an engineer at VISA. I showed no mercy.
MRW when someone asks for a free ticket to my charity event, but they’ve spent $10,000 on my products
Our fundraising metrics
We raised $12,975, beating our goal of $5,000!! (We donated 100% of that money.)
To raise money, we first asked a few friends in the nonprofit space for their advice. They pointed us to groups we started researching, then we settled on Families Belong Together to donate our funds to.
Our next step was to email friends. We emailed about 50 friends and family, raising $2,450. Some people donated to come to the NYC event we held, while others just donated funds.
Then Cass and I recorded a video explaining why we were raising money and why this is important to us, which I posted on my Instagram feed/stories, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The video got watched about 50,000 times.
That video linked back to our Eventbrite page, which got ~2,000 views and raised ~$9,000.
We held an event in NYC, where we hosted about 35 people in a space donated by https://energi.life/welcome/. Paola from Families Belong Together shared stories about what she’s seen along the border, along with drinks served by Andrew from Crafttender (big thanks to everyone for making this possible!!).
Overall, for our first fundraiser, this was a big success!!
Paola shared her experiences working with Families Belong Together. Some of my friends cried during the presentation.
LESSON #1: Get comfortable with small numbers
Initially, Cass and I set a goal of $50,000. When we went to a few fundraising friends and asked for advice, one of them smiled. “Why don’t you start small?” he gently asked us. Even though it was hard to hear, he was right.
I learned that I had to get comfortable with smaller numbers.
This wasn’t some massive fundraiser where we could leverage crazy press or the entire IWT business (e.g., when IWT raised $300,000 for Pencils of Promise).
After running IWT, where I oversee a team that manages complex lead acquisition, funnels, conversion, and products, I’ve gotten used to big numbers. To give you an example, during the week my wife and I raised $12,975 for this fundraiser, one individual IWT student bought 3 courses equaling $10,388.
So with this fundraiser, it was humbling to start small and be satisfied with small numbers and modest goals. This was my wife and me setting up our first fundraiser together, trying to find a free event space, and trying to send anything we can to support families at the border.
I had to reframe our new goal of “only” $5,000 as a win. When you’re starting something new, it’s hard to remember that starting small is how EVERYONE starts off. This was a great reminder. Most of all, we were just thrilled to be able to contribute to a cause we care about.
LESSON #2: When a friend asks, show up
You might have seen “Ramit’s 10 Money Rules” that I posted a while back. Look closely at #4:
#4: “Never question spending money on books, appetizers, health, or donating to a friend’s charity fundraiser.”
Read about Ramit’s Money Rules 
There’s a reason I always donate to friends’ charity events. When your friend emails you for a fundraiser, they really want your help (in general, people HATE asking for money, so when they do, there’s usually a reason for it).
If you respond and donate quickly, they’ll appreciate it.
And if you donate more than they asked for, they will never forget it.
For example, Sam Gavis-Hughson is a Zero To Launch graduate who helps job candidates prepare for their coding interviews at companies like Google and Facebook. He used our Zero To Launch program to recently run a $50,000 launch. When we posted about our fundraiser, he was one of our first donors and came in big with a $500 donation — that’s more than our requested $100 donation. I will never forget it.
Other friends never donated. Maybe they were busy or missed the email. But I’ll never forget that, either.
Showing up doesn’t just mean spending money. It also means physically showing up when it’s important to your friend.
Over the last couple of weeks, two of my friends have launched books. I went to Nir Eyal’s launch of his book. A few days later, Cass and I went to support Paula Rizzo’s launch of her book. Yes, I’m busy. Yes, it was out of the way. Yes, we showed up.
Showing up for Paula Rizzo’s book launch of Listful Living
When an author launches their book, they’re nervous, they’re excited, and most of all, THEY DESPERATELY WANT YOUR SUPPORT.
SHOW UP!! Show up for birthdays parties, weddings, book launches, and charity events. ALWAYS.
Those are moments in someone’s life that mean so much to them.
Cass and I learned the importance of showing up when we were planning our wedding. After we were married, we made a set of joint rules for attending other people’s weddings:
Always be first on the dance floor
Be the couple that you can seat anywhere because you know we’ll get the table having fun (AKA, don’t be a dud)
Make sure your gifts arrive before the wedding
After going through our first fundraiser, our new rules are:
Always donate to our friends’ fundraisers
Always donate MORE than they ask for (an extra $100 or $200 will always be remembered)
LESSON #3: Deal with critics
Invariably, I had some people who didn’t agree with the cause we were raising money for. I think this stops a lot of people from ever getting started with something like this (or starting a business). What will people think? What will they say? Will my friends get annoyed by me asking them for money?
Whenever you try something new, you’re going to encounter critics. It happened with this fundraiser.
LOL at the critics who decided that instead of donating, they’d leave angry comments on a fundraiser for a good cause.
I typically find that they use 3 strategies:
Telling me they disagree with my cause
Hateful comment: “Send everyone the fuck back” (screenshots below)
Confuse the issue by asking seemingly innocent question (concern trolling): “What about X? Have you considered Y? Are you concerned about Z?”
Here’s how I dealt with them.
First, when they disagree with your cause: I had a woman DM me on Instagram and politely tell me that she doesn’t agree with me politically, but she appreciates that I’m using my platform to support a cause I care about. I totally respect that.
Then there were the #MAGA morons who decided to lob potshots from their anonymous accounts with hateful comments.
Unfortunately for them, this New York Times bestselling author is considerably smarter than the usual empty-headed cretins they deal with at the local parking lot where they spend their Saturday nights.
You can safely ignore twitter commenters whose feeds are filled with hateful posts, whose headshots are cartoon characters wearing a birthday hat, and who seem to share one thing in common: the intellectual aptitude of a gnat. Just move on — they already live in a prison in their own mind.
But beyond anonymous critics, there were the more insidious critics who try to confuse the issue by concern trolling, or asking question after question after question.
Here’s what you must understand: These people will never support your cause, whether it’s a fundraiser or a business or your plan to lose weight. They have no interest in a genuine discussion (if they did, they would engage privately). They’re asking questions because getting others riled up is their entertainment. And, to put it delicately, my successful friends never leave comments like this.
“If it was X, MAYBE I would donate” = “I will never donate”
You can delete or ignore these comments. I intentionally responded to a couple so my followers could see my responses.
If you decide to try something new, remember this: Opinions are cheap. You’ll ALWAYS get people saying, “What about this? What about that? How do where every cent of this $100 is going? If you did X, maybe I would donate.”
Oh, ok. Suddenly, some anonymous guy with an icon of a banana has developed a 14-page quiz on Kantian ethics that you must answer before they donate $100. In reality, they have the moral compass of a cupholder.
Guess what? They’re not your audience.
Actual supporters didn’t demand that I jump through their gauntlet of requirements for one hundred dollars. They wanted to get involved, they clicked DONATE, and they showed up.
It’s fine if not everyone supports your cause (whether it’s a business, a new hobby, or a fundraiser). But I wanted to show you some of the worst critics of all — the ones who try to derail you by questioning you, by concern trolling you, by trying to make you second-guess yourself — so you can see that these people are everywhere.
You want to raise money for your own cause? Great! Do it. My wife and I saw something we wanted to support and we raised over $12,000 to help these families. If you’re more comfortable lobbing hateful comments on social media, then sit down and get the fuck out of my way. I have work to do.
LESSON #4: Use your time and money to live a Rich Life
THIS is a Rich Life — where you use your time and money to help other people.
When something outrages you or inspires you…when something makes you MAD or SAD or THRILLED, that’s an opportunity to lean into it and use your time and money to improve it.
It’s not about needing to have $1,000,000. A tiny amount can change someone’s life.
IWT isn’t simply about earning more money. I show you how to do that in my book, my business courses, and my career courses.
But to be able to use your time and money to help other people…that’s another level.
I want you to see how that you can use money to support the things you care about. Your family, your health, and yes — giving back.
I want to show you that raising money for something you believe in comes in lots of shapes and colors and sizes. It doesn’t mean you have to attend a black-tie gala in Manhattan. I never wrote fundraising checks as a child — but I did do “sewa” (volunteer service) at my local Sikh temple.
I want to show you how to pick a goal, then go after it without anyone or anything getting in your way. Critics? GTFO. What about the perfect financial structu–forget all that! Raise the money and send it.
More than anything, I want you to know that you can define your Rich Life. This is ours. I hope you find yours and lean into it.
How we raised $10,000+ for a charity (actual metrics) is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.
from Finance https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/how-we-raised-10000-for-a-charity/ via http://www.rssmix.com/
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dylanlarkiin · 8 years ago
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You should do questions 200-147, 80-25, 110-81, 24-2, 146-111, and 1
this took me a while to figure out that you meant all of them.....
200: My crush’s name is: a secret 199: I was born in: 98198: I am really: relaxed rn197: My cellphone company is: AT&T196: My eye color is: brown195: My shoe size is: 7 1/2194: My ring size is: 5 or 6193: My height is: 5′4192: I am allergic to: honey!!!!191: My 1st car was: Jeep wrangler190: My 1st job was: lifeguarding 189: Last book you read: Mosquitoland by David Arnold187: My pet: 2 pups186: My best friend: Kerry185: My favorite shampoo is: i use whatever doesn't wash my hair dye out the fastest184: Xbox or ps3: I'm not a gamer really183: Piggy banks are: cute182: In my pockets: are my car keys181: On my calendar: i keep my exam dates and birthdays 180: Marriage is: for after i finish college179: Spongebob can: be cancelled178: My mom: is the best mom in the world177: The last three songs I bought were?: slow burn - state champs, how do you feel - the maine and believe by mumford & sons 176: Last YouTube video watched: “how to french braid hair”175: How many cousins do you have?: more than 12174: Do you have any siblings?: one younger sis173: Are your parents divorced?: no172: Are you taller than your mom?: nope171: Do you play an instrument?: no :(170: What did you do yesterday?: spent easter with my family
[ I Believe In ]169: Love at first sight: no 168: Luck: yes167: Fate: yes166: Yourself: yes165: Aliens: yes164: Heaven: yes163: Hell: yes162: God: yes161: Horoscopes: occasionally160: Soul mates: no159: Ghosts: yes158: Gay Marriage: yes157: War: history repeats itself156: Orbs: yes155: Magic: yes
[ This or That ]154: Hugs or Kisses: hugs153: Drunk or High: drunk152: Phone or Online: phone151: Red heads or Black haired: black hair150: Blondes or Brunettes: brunettes 149: Hot or cold: hot148: Summer or winter: summer147: Autumn or Spring: autumn 146: Chocolate or vanilla: strawberry145: Night or Day: day144: Oranges or Apples: oranges143: Curly or Straight hair: curly142: McDonalds or Burger King: chicken fries141: White Chocolate or Milk Chocolate: NO MILK EW140: Mac or PC: mac139: Flip flops or high heals: flip flops 138: Ugly and rich OR sweet and poor: sweet and poor, its about the character 137: Coke or Pepsi: pepsi136: Hillary or Obama: eh135: Burried or cremated: idk134: Singing or Dancing: singing 133: Coach or Chanel: neither thanks132: Kat McPhee or Taylor Hicks: nope131: Small town or Big city: big city130: Wal-Mart or Target: target129: Ben Stiller or Adam Sandler: no preference 128: Manicure or Pedicure: manicure 127: East Coast or West Coast: west even tho i live on the east coast126: Your Birthday or Christmas: christmas 125: Chocolate or Flowers: flowers124: Disney or Six Flags: six flags never been to disney 123: Yankees or Red Sox: none
[ Here’s What I Think About ]122: War: i do not prefer it, but i like to learn about it120: Gay Marriage: everyone should love whoever they choose119: The presidential election: shitshow118: Abortion: women should each have their own right to choose117: MySpace: lol!!!!!!116: Reality TV: entertaining 115: Parents: love them114: Back stabbers: assholes113: Ebay: ive found some decent stuff112: Facebook: never had one111: Work: gotta make money somehow 110: My Neighbors: they're nice people109: Gas Prices: THEYRE GOING UP TOO MUCH108: Designer Clothes: give or take107: College: hardest shit I've ever had to do106: Sports: hockey105: My family: most supportive104: The future: i live one day at a time
[ Last time I ]103: Hugged someone: yesterday 102: Last time you ate: two mins ago101: Saw someone I haven’t seen in awhile: yesterday 100: Cried in front of someone: few weeks ago99: Went to a movie theater: friday98: Took a vacation: march 16th 201797: Swam in a pool: march 16th 96: Changed a diaper: like years probably95: Got my nails done: last november94: Went to a wedding: last july93: Broke a bone: i have not broken any, knock on wood92: Got a piercing: april of 201591: Broke the law: don't know90: Texted: 20 mins ago 
[ MISC ]89: Who makes you laugh the most: my sister88: Something I will really miss when I leave home is: my dogs 87: The last movie I saw: fate of the furious 86: The thing that I’m looking forward to the most: summer!!!!!!85: The thing im not looking forward to: college final exams84: People call me: outgoing83: The most difficult thing to do is: save money82: I have gotten a speeding ticket: no81: My zodiac sign is: cancer80: The first person i talked to today was: my dad79: First time you had a crush: elementary school78: The one person who i can’t hide things from: my best friend or sister77: Last time someone said something you were thinking: few hours ago76: Right now I am talking to: my grandma75: What are you going to do when you grow up: nursing 74: I have/will get a job: this summer73: Tomorrow: i have an anatomy quiz 72: Today: is warm out71: Next Summer: no idea69: I have these pets: two dogs68: The worst sound in the world: crying babies67: The person that makes me cry the most is: idk66: People that make you happy: my family and friends65: Last time I cried: couple weeks ago64: My friends are: awesome63: My computer is: at 14%62: My School: sucks61: My Car: is great60: I lose all respect for people who: drink and drive 59: The movie I cried at was: last one was this space movie58: Your hair color is: dark brown57: TV shows you watch: ghost adventures and whatever else is on 56: Favorite web site: forever 2155: Your dream vacation: somewhere beautiful and warm54: The worst pain I was ever in was: when i dislocated my knee53: How do you like your steak cooked: medium well52: My room is: messy51: My favorite celebrity is: uh idk50: Where would you like to be: in a happier less stressful place 49: Do you want children: far down the road48: Ever been in love: yes47: Who’s your best friend: kerry46: More guy friends or girl friends: girl45: One thing that makes you feel great is: showering44: One person that you wish you could see right now: my bff43: Do you have a 5 year plan: no42: Have you made a list of things to do before you die: nope41: Have you pre-named your children: no40: Last person I got mad at: myself39: I would like to move to: somewhere warm38: I wish I was a professional: investigator 
[ My Favorites ]37: Candy: sour candy36: Vehicle: jeeps35: President: idk34: State visited: florida or cali33: Cellphone provider: what i have now31: Actor:30: Actress:29: Singer: halsey28: Band: state champs27: Clothing store: forever 2126: Grocery store: kroger25: TV show: vampire diaries24: Movie: hard choice22: Animal: giraffes 21: Theme park: universal 20: Holiday: christmas 19: Sport to watch: hockey 18: Sport to play: volleyball17: Magazine: star magazine16: Book: so many 15: Day of the week: friday14: Beach: up north beaches in michigan 13: Concert attended: jonas brothers reunion12: Thing to cook: pasta11: Food: mexican10: Restaurant: on the border9: Radio station: 98.7 amp radio8: Yankee candle scent: something soft and sweet7: Perfume: vanilla 6: Flower: lilies5: Color: purple4: Talk show host: ellen3: Comedian: idk2: Dog breed: mutts1: Did you answer all these truthfully? yes
(some of these were repeats so i deleted them, THANK YOUUUUUUU
2 notes · View notes
samuelfields · 5 years ago
Text
How we raised $10,000+ for a charity (actual metrics)
What happens when you try to raise money for a cause you care about?
Last week, my wife and I held a fundraiser in NYC. We both come from families of immigrants and we wanted to raise money for families being separated at the border. What we’ve seen has made us feel helpless, outraged, and sad. But we also know that we’re in the enviable position of being able to do something about it.
This was the first time we’ve ever raised money for a fundraiser together and I want to share what we learned (plus all the numbers).
VIDEO: My wife and me explaining why we launched this fundraiser
It turns out I LOVE fundraising. I think it’s because…
It’s a cause I care about
I have friends and readers I can share this with
Thanks to having 40,000 customers, I have no fear of asking for money. Especially from IWT readers who asked for a free ticket to my event, and (1) one had spent $10,000 on my products, (2) another worked at Amazon, and (3) a third was an engineer at VISA. I showed no mercy.
MRW when someone asks for a free ticket to my charity event, but they’ve spent $10,000 on my products
Our fundraising metrics
We raised $12,975, beating our goal of $5,000!! (We donated 100% of that money.)
To raise money, we first asked a few friends in the nonprofit space for their advice. They pointed us to groups we started researching, then we settled on Families Belong Together to donate our funds to.
Our next step was to email friends. We emailed about 50 friends and family, raising $2,450. Some people donated to come to the NYC event we held, while others just donated funds.
Then Cass and I recorded a video explaining why we were raising money and why this is important to us, which I posted on my Instagram feed/stories, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The video got watched about 50,000 times.
That video linked back to our Eventbrite page, which got ~2,000 views and raised ~$9,000.
We held an event in NYC on Friday, where we hosted about 35 people in a space donated by https://energi.life/welcome/. Paola from Families Belong Together shared stories about what she’s seen along the border, along with drinks served by Andrew from Crafttender (big thanks to everyone for making this possible!!).
Overall, for our first fundraiser, this was a big success!!
Paola shared her experiences working with Families Belong Together. Some of my friends cried during the presentation.
LESSON #1: Get comfortable with small numbers
Initially, Cass and I set a goal of $50,000. When we went to a few fundraising friends and asked for advice, one of them smiled. “Why don’t you start small?” he gently asked us. Even though it was hard to hear, he was right.
I learned that I had to get comfortable with smaller numbers.
This wasn’t some massive fundraiser where we could leverage crazy press or the entire IWT business (e.g., when IWT raised $300,000 for Pencils of Promise).
After running IWT, where I oversee a team that manages complex lead acquisition, funnels, conversion, and products, I’ve gotten used to big numbers. To give you an example, during the last week when my wife and I raised $12,975 for this fundraiser, one individual IWT student bought 3 courses equaling $10,388.
So with this fundraiser, it was humbling to start small and be satisfied with small numbers and modest goals. This was my wife and me setting up our first fundraiser together, trying to find a free event space, and trying to send anything we can to support families at the border.
I had to reframe our new goal of our goal of “only” $5,000 as a win. When you’re starting something new, it’s hard to remember that starting small is how EVERYONE starts off. This was a great reminder. Most of all, we were just thrilled to be able to contribute to a cause we care about.
LESSON #2: When a friend asks, show up
You might have seen “Ramit’s 10 Money Rules” that I posted a while back. Look closely at #4:
#4: “Never question spending money on books, appetizers, health, or donating to a friend’s charity fundraiser.”
Read about Ramit’s Money Rules 
There’s a reason I always donate to friends’ charity events. When your friend emails you for a fundraiser, they really want your help (in general, people HATE asking for money, so when they do, there’s usually a reason for it).
If you respond and donate quickly, they’ll appreciate it.
And if you donate more than they asked for, they will never forget it.
For example, Sam Gavis-Hughson is a Zero To Launch graduate who helps job candidates prepare for their coding interviews at companies like Google and Facebook. He used our Zero To Launch program to recently run a $50,000 launch. When we posted about our fundraiser, he was one of our first donors and came in big with a $500 donation — that’s more than our requested $100 donation. I will never forget it.
Other friends never donated. Maybe they were busy or missed the email. But I’ll never forget that, either.
Showing up doesn’t just mean spending money. It also means physically showing up when it’s important to your friend.
Over the last couple of weeks, two of my friends have launched books. I went to Nir Eyal’s launch of his book. A few days later, Cass and I went to support Paula Rizzo’s launch of her book. Yes, I’m busy. Yes, it was out of the way. Yes, we showed up.
Showing up for Paula Rizzo’s book launch of Listful Living
When an author launches their book, they’re nervous, they’re excited, and most of all, THEY DESPERATELY WANT YOUR SUPPORT.
SHOW UP!! Show up for birthdays parties, weddings, book launches, and charity events. ALWAYS.
Those are moments in someone’s life that mean so much to them.
Cass and I learned the importance of showing up when we were planning our wedding. After we were married, we made a set of joint rules for attending other people’s weddings:
Always be first on the dance floor
Be the couple that you can seat anywhere because you know we’ll get the table having fun (AKA, don’t be a dud)
Make sure your gifts arrive before the wedding
After going through our first fundraiser, our new rules are:
Always donate to our friends’ fundraisers
Always donate MORE than they ask for (an extra $100 or $200 will always be remembered)
LESSON #3: Deal with critics
Invariably, I had some people who didn’t agree with the cause we were raising money for. I think this stops a lot of people from ever getting started with something like this (or starting a business). What will people think? What will they say? Will my friends get annoyed by me asking them for money?
Whenever you try something new, you’re going to encounter critics. It happened with this fundraiser.
LOL at the critics who decided that instead of donating, they’d leave angry comments on a fundraiser for a good cause.
I typically find that they use 3 strategies:
Telling me they disagree with my cause
Hateful comment: “Send everyone the fuck back” (screenshots below)
Confuse the issue by asking seemingly innocent question (concern trolling): “What about X? Have you considered Y? Are you concerned about Z?”
Here’s how I dealt with them.
First, when they disagree with your cause: I had a woman DM me on Instagram and politely tell me that she doesn’t agree with me politically, but she appreciates that I’m using my platform to support a cause I care about. I totally respect that.
Then there were the #MAGA morons who decided to lob potshots from their anonymous accounts with hateful comments.
Unfortunately for them, this New York Times bestselling author is considerably smarter than the usual empty-headed cretins they deal with at the local parking lot where they spend their Saturday nights.
You can safely ignore twitter commenters whose feeds are filled with hateful posts, whose headshots are cartoon characters wearing a birthday hat, and who seem to share one thing in common: the intellectual aptitude of a gnat. Just move on — they already live in a prison in their own mind.
But beyond anonymous critics, there were the more insidious critics who try to confuse the issue by concern trolling, or asking question after question after question.
Here’s what you must understand: These people will never support your cause, whether it’s a fundraiser or a business or your plan to lose weight. They have no interest in a genuine discussion (if they did, they would engage privately). They’re asking questions because getting others riled up is their entertainment. And, to put it delicately, my successful friends never leave comments like this.
“If it was X, MAYBE I would donate” = “I will never donate”
You can delete or ignore these comments. I intentionally responded to a couple so my followers could see my responses.
If you decide to try something new, remember this: Opinions are cheap. You’ll ALWAYS get people saying, “What about this? What about that? How do where every cent of this $100 is going? If you did X, maybe I would donate.”
Oh, ok. Suddenly, some anonymous guy with an icon of a banana has developed a 14-page quiz on Kantian ethics that you must answer before they donate $100. In reality, they have the moral compass of a cupholder.
Guess what? They’re not your audience.
Actual supporters didn’t demand that I jump through their gauntlet of requirements for one hundred dollars. They wanted to get involved, they clicked DONATE, and they showed up.
It’s fine if not everyone supports your cause (whether it’s a business, a new hobby, or a fundraiser). But I wanted to show you some of the worst critics of all — the ones who try to derail you by questioning you, by concern trolling you, by trying to make you second-guess yourself — so you can see that these people are everywhere.
You want to raise money for your own cause? Great! Do it. My wife and I saw something we wanted to support and we raised over $12,000 to help these families. If you’re more comfortable lobbing hateful comments on social media, then sit down and get the fuck out of my way. I have work to do.
LESSON #4: Use your time and money to live a Rich Life
THIS is a Rich Life — where you use your time and money to help other people.
When something outrages you or inspires you…when something makes you MAD or SAD or THRILLED, that’s an opportunity to lean into it and use your time and money to improve it.
It’s not about needing to have $1,000,000. A tiny amount can change someone’s life.
IWT isn’t simply about earning more money. I show you how to do that in my book, my business courses, and my career courses.
But to be able to use your time and money to help other people…that’s another level.
NAME, I want you to see how that you can use money to support the things you care about. Your family, your health, and yes — giving back.
I want to show you that raising money for something you believe in comes in lots of shapes and colors and sizes. It doesn’t mean you have to attend a black-tie gala in Manhattan. I never wrote fundraising checks as a child — but I did do “sewa” (volunteer service) at my local Sikh temple.
I want to show you how to pick a goal, then go after it without anyone or anything getting in your way. Critics? GTFO. What about the perfect financial structu–forget all that! Raise the money and send it.
More than anything, I want you to know that you can define your Rich Life. This is ours. I hope you find yours and lean into it.
If you need an idea for a Christmas present then think about the Rubik’s Cube which is the best selling puzzle toy in the World.
How we raised $10,000+ for a charity (actual metrics) is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.
from Finance https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/how-we-raised-10000-for-a-charity/ via http://www.rssmix.com/
0 notes
kennethherrerablog · 5 years ago
Text
How we raised $10,000+ for a charity (actual metrics)
What happens when you try to raise money for a cause you care about?
Recently, my wife and I held a fundraiser in NYC. We both come from families of immigrants and we wanted to raise money for families being separated at the border. What we’ve seen has made us feel helpless, outraged, and sad. But we also know that we’re in the enviable position of being able to do something about it.
This was the first time we’ve ever raised money for a fundraiser together and I want to share what we learned (plus all the numbers).
VIDEO: My wife and me explaining why we launched this fundraiser
It turns out I LOVE fundraising. I think it’s because…
It’s a cause I care about
I have friends and readers I can share this with
Thanks to having 40,000 customers, I have no fear of asking for money. Especially from IWT readers who asked for a free ticket to my event, and (1) one had spent $10,000 on my products, (2) another worked at Amazon, and (3) a third was an engineer at VISA. I showed no mercy.
MRW when someone asks for a free ticket to my charity event, but they’ve spent $10,000 on my products
Our fundraising metrics
We raised $12,975, beating our goal of $5,000!! (We donated 100% of that money.)
To raise money, we first asked a few friends in the nonprofit space for their advice. They pointed us to groups we started researching, then we settled on Families Belong Together to donate our funds to.
Our next step was to email friends. We emailed about 50 friends and family, raising $2,450. Some people donated to come to the NYC event we held, while others just donated funds.
Then Cass and I recorded a video explaining why we were raising money and why this is important to us, which I posted on my Instagram feed/stories, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The video got watched about 50,000 times.
That video linked back to our Eventbrite page, which got ~2,000 views and raised ~$9,000.
We held an event in NYC, where we hosted about 35 people in a space donated by https://energi.life/welcome/. Paola from Families Belong Together shared stories about what she’s seen along the border, along with drinks served by Andrew from Crafttender (big thanks to everyone for making this possible!!).
Overall, for our first fundraiser, this was a big success!!
Paola shared her experiences working with Families Belong Together. Some of my friends cried during the presentation.
LESSON #1: Get comfortable with small numbers
Initially, Cass and I set a goal of $50,000. When we went to a few fundraising friends and asked for advice, one of them smiled. “Why don’t you start small?” he gently asked us. Even though it was hard to hear, he was right.
I learned that I had to get comfortable with smaller numbers.
This wasn’t some massive fundraiser where we could leverage crazy press or the entire IWT business (e.g., when IWT raised $300,000 for Pencils of Promise).
After running IWT, where I oversee a team that manages complex lead acquisition, funnels, conversion, and products, I’ve gotten used to big numbers. To give you an example, during the week my wife and I raised $12,975 for this fundraiser, one individual IWT student bought 3 courses equaling $10,388.
So with this fundraiser, it was humbling to start small and be satisfied with small numbers and modest goals. This was my wife and me setting up our first fundraiser together, trying to find a free event space, and trying to send anything we can to support families at the border.
I had to reframe our new goal of “only” $5,000 as a win. When you’re starting something new, it’s hard to remember that starting small is how EVERYONE starts off. This was a great reminder. Most of all, we were just thrilled to be able to contribute to a cause we care about.
LESSON #2: When a friend asks, show up
You might have seen “Ramit’s 10 Money Rules” that I posted a while back. Look closely at #4:
#4: “Never question spending money on books, appetizers, health, or donating to a friend’s charity fundraiser.”
Read about Ramit’s Money Rules 
There’s a reason I always donate to friends’ charity events. When your friend emails you for a fundraiser, they really want your help (in general, people HATE asking for money, so when they do, there’s usually a reason for it).
If you respond and donate quickly, they’ll appreciate it.
And if you donate more than they asked for, they will never forget it.
For example, Sam Gavis-Hughson is a Zero To Launch graduate who helps job candidates prepare for their coding interviews at companies like Google and Facebook. He used our Zero To Launch program to recently run a $50,000 launch. When we posted about our fundraiser, he was one of our first donors and came in big with a $500 donation — that’s more than our requested $100 donation. I will never forget it.
Other friends never donated. Maybe they were busy or missed the email. But I’ll never forget that, either.
Showing up doesn’t just mean spending money. It also means physically showing up when it’s important to your friend.
Over the last couple of weeks, two of my friends have launched books. I went to Nir Eyal’s launch of his book. A few days later, Cass and I went to support Paula Rizzo’s launch of her book. Yes, I’m busy. Yes, it was out of the way. Yes, we showed up.
Showing up for Paula Rizzo’s book launch of Listful Living
When an author launches their book, they’re nervous, they’re excited, and most of all, THEY DESPERATELY WANT YOUR SUPPORT.
SHOW UP!! Show up for birthdays parties, weddings, book launches, and charity events. ALWAYS.
Those are moments in someone’s life that mean so much to them.
Cass and I learned the importance of showing up when we were planning our wedding. After we were married, we made a set of joint rules for attending other people’s weddings:
Always be first on the dance floor
Be the couple that you can seat anywhere because you know we’ll get the table having fun (AKA, don’t be a dud)
Make sure your gifts arrive before the wedding
After going through our first fundraiser, our new rules are:
Always donate to our friends’ fundraisers
Always donate MORE than they ask for (an extra $100 or $200 will always be remembered)
LESSON #3: Deal with critics
Invariably, I had some people who didn’t agree with the cause we were raising money for. I think this stops a lot of people from ever getting started with something like this (or starting a business). What will people think? What will they say? Will my friends get annoyed by me asking them for money?
Whenever you try something new, you’re going to encounter critics. It happened with this fundraiser.
LOL at the critics who decided that instead of donating, they’d leave angry comments on a fundraiser for a good cause.
I typically find that they use 3 strategies:
Telling me they disagree with my cause
Hateful comment: “Send everyone the fuck back” (screenshots below)
Confuse the issue by asking seemingly innocent question (concern trolling): “What about X? Have you considered Y? Are you concerned about Z?”
Here’s how I dealt with them.
First, when they disagree with your cause: I had a woman DM me on Instagram and politely tell me that she doesn’t agree with me politically, but she appreciates that I’m using my platform to support a cause I care about. I totally respect that.
Then there were the #MAGA morons who decided to lob potshots from their anonymous accounts with hateful comments.
Unfortunately for them, this New York Times bestselling author is considerably smarter than the usual empty-headed cretins they deal with at the local parking lot where they spend their Saturday nights.
You can safely ignore twitter commenters whose feeds are filled with hateful posts, whose headshots are cartoon characters wearing a birthday hat, and who seem to share one thing in common: the intellectual aptitude of a gnat. Just move on — they already live in a prison in their own mind.
But beyond anonymous critics, there were the more insidious critics who try to confuse the issue by concern trolling, or asking question after question after question.
Here’s what you must understand: These people will never support your cause, whether it’s a fundraiser or a business or your plan to lose weight. They have no interest in a genuine discussion (if they did, they would engage privately). They’re asking questions because getting others riled up is their entertainment. And, to put it delicately, my successful friends never leave comments like this.
“If it was X, MAYBE I would donate” = “I will never donate”
You can delete or ignore these comments. I intentionally responded to a couple so my followers could see my responses.
If you decide to try something new, remember this: Opinions are cheap. You’ll ALWAYS get people saying, “What about this? What about that? How do where every cent of this $100 is going? If you did X, maybe I would donate.”
Oh, ok. Suddenly, some anonymous guy with an icon of a banana has developed a 14-page quiz on Kantian ethics that you must answer before they donate $100. In reality, they have the moral compass of a cupholder.
Guess what? They’re not your audience.
Actual supporters didn’t demand that I jump through their gauntlet of requirements for one hundred dollars. They wanted to get involved, they clicked DONATE, and they showed up.
It’s fine if not everyone supports your cause (whether it’s a business, a new hobby, or a fundraiser). But I wanted to show you some of the worst critics of all — the ones who try to derail you by questioning you, by concern trolling you, by trying to make you second-guess yourself — so you can see that these people are everywhere.
You want to raise money for your own cause? Great! Do it. My wife and I saw something we wanted to support and we raised over $12,000 to help these families. If you’re more comfortable lobbing hateful comments on social media, then sit down and get the fuck out of my way. I have work to do.
LESSON #4: Use your time and money to live a Rich Life
THIS is a Rich Life — where you use your time and money to help other people.
When something outrages you or inspires you…when something makes you MAD or SAD or THRILLED, that’s an opportunity to lean into it and use your time and money to improve it.
It’s not about needing to have $1,000,000. A tiny amount can change someone’s life.
IWT isn’t simply about earning more money. I show you how to do that in my book, my business courses, and my career courses.
But to be able to use your time and money to help other people…that’s another level.
I want you to see how that you can use money to support the things you care about. Your family, your health, and yes — giving back.
I want to show you that raising money for something you believe in comes in lots of shapes and colors and sizes. It doesn’t mean you have to attend a black-tie gala in Manhattan. I never wrote fundraising checks as a child — but I did do “sewa” (volunteer service) at my local Sikh temple.
I want to show you how to pick a goal, then go after it without anyone or anything getting in your way. Critics? GTFO. What about the perfect financial structu–forget all that! Raise the money and send it.
More than anything, I want you to know that you can define your Rich Life. This is ours. I hope you find yours and lean into it.
How we raised $10,000+ for a charity (actual metrics) is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.
How we raised $10,000+ for a charity (actual metrics) published first on https://justinbetreviews.tumblr.com/
0 notes
mcjoelcain · 5 years ago
Text
How we raised $10,000+ for a charity (actual metrics)
What happens when you try to raise money for a cause you care about?
Recently, my wife and I held a fundraiser in NYC. We both come from families of immigrants and we wanted to raise money for families being separated at the border. What we’ve seen has made us feel helpless, outraged, and sad. But we also know that we’re in the enviable position of being able to do something about it.
This was the first time we’ve ever raised money for a fundraiser together and I want to share what we learned (plus all the numbers).
VIDEO: My wife and me explaining why we launched this fundraiser
It turns out I LOVE fundraising. I think it’s because…
It’s a cause I care about
I have friends and readers I can share this with
Thanks to having 40,000 customers, I have no fear of asking for money. Especially from IWT readers who asked for a free ticket to my event, and (1) one had spent $10,000 on my products, (2) another worked at Amazon, and (3) a third was an engineer at VISA. I showed no mercy.
MRW when someone asks for a free ticket to my charity event, but they’ve spent $10,000 on my products
Our fundraising metrics
We raised $12,975, beating our goal of $5,000!! (We donated 100% of that money.)
To raise money, we first asked a few friends in the nonprofit space for their advice. They pointed us to groups we started researching, then we settled on Families Belong Together to donate our funds to.
Our next step was to email friends. We emailed about 50 friends and family, raising $2,450. Some people donated to come to the NYC event we held, while others just donated funds.
Then Cass and I recorded a video explaining why we were raising money and why this is important to us, which I posted on my Instagram feed/stories, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The video got watched about 50,000 times.
That video linked back to our Eventbrite page, which got ~2,000 views and raised ~$9,000.
We held an event in NYC, where we hosted about 35 people in a space donated by https://energi.life/welcome/. Paola from Families Belong Together shared stories about what she’s seen along the border, along with drinks served by Andrew from Crafttender (big thanks to everyone for making this possible!!).
Overall, for our first fundraiser, this was a big success!!
Paola shared her experiences working with Families Belong Together. Some of my friends cried during the presentation.
LESSON #1: Get comfortable with small numbers
Initially, Cass and I set a goal of $50,000. When we went to a few fundraising friends and asked for advice, one of them smiled. “Why don’t you start small?” he gently asked us. Even though it was hard to hear, he was right.
I learned that I had to get comfortable with smaller numbers.
This wasn’t some massive fundraiser where we could leverage crazy press or the entire IWT business (e.g., when IWT raised $300,000 for Pencils of Promise).
After running IWT, where I oversee a team that manages complex lead acquisition, funnels, conversion, and products, I’ve gotten used to big numbers. To give you an example, during the week my wife and I raised $12,975 for this fundraiser, one individual IWT student bought 3 courses equaling $10,388.
So with this fundraiser, it was humbling to start small and be satisfied with small numbers and modest goals. This was my wife and me setting up our first fundraiser together, trying to find a free event space, and trying to send anything we can to support families at the border.
I had to reframe our new goal of “only” $5,000 as a win. When you’re starting something new, it’s hard to remember that starting small is how EVERYONE starts off. This was a great reminder. Most of all, we were just thrilled to be able to contribute to a cause we care about.
LESSON #2: When a friend asks, show up
You might have seen “Ramit’s 10 Money Rules” that I posted a while back. Look closely at #4:
#4: “Never question spending money on books, appetizers, health, or donating to a friend’s charity fundraiser.”
Read about Ramit’s Money Rules 
There’s a reason I always donate to friends’ charity events. When your friend emails you for a fundraiser, they really want your help (in general, people HATE asking for money, so when they do, there’s usually a reason for it).
If you respond and donate quickly, they’ll appreciate it.
And if you donate more than they asked for, they will never forget it.
For example, Sam Gavis-Hughson is a Zero To Launch graduate who helps job candidates prepare for their coding interviews at companies like Google and Facebook. He used our Zero To Launch program to recently run a $50,000 launch. When we posted about our fundraiser, he was one of our first donors and came in big with a $500 donation — that’s more than our requested $100 donation. I will never forget it.
Other friends never donated. Maybe they were busy or missed the email. But I’ll never forget that, either.
Showing up doesn’t just mean spending money. It also means physically showing up when it’s important to your friend.
Over the last couple of weeks, two of my friends have launched books. I went to Nir Eyal’s launch of his book. A few days later, Cass and I went to support Paula Rizzo’s launch of her book. Yes, I’m busy. Yes, it was out of the way. Yes, we showed up.
Showing up for Paula Rizzo’s book launch of Listful Living
When an author launches their book, they’re nervous, they’re excited, and most of all, THEY DESPERATELY WANT YOUR SUPPORT.
SHOW UP!! Show up for birthdays parties, weddings, book launches, and charity events. ALWAYS.
Those are moments in someone’s life that mean so much to them.
Cass and I learned the importance of showing up when we were planning our wedding. After we were married, we made a set of joint rules for attending other people’s weddings:
Always be first on the dance floor
Be the couple that you can seat anywhere because you know we’ll get the table having fun (AKA, don’t be a dud)
Make sure your gifts arrive before the wedding
After going through our first fundraiser, our new rules are:
Always donate to our friends’ fundraisers
Always donate MORE than they ask for (an extra $100 or $200 will always be remembered)
LESSON #3: Deal with critics
Invariably, I had some people who didn’t agree with the cause we were raising money for. I think this stops a lot of people from ever getting started with something like this (or starting a business). What will people think? What will they say? Will my friends get annoyed by me asking them for money?
Whenever you try something new, you’re going to encounter critics. It happened with this fundraiser.
LOL at the critics who decided that instead of donating, they’d leave angry comments on a fundraiser for a good cause.
I typically find that they use 3 strategies:
Telling me they disagree with my cause
Hateful comment: “Send everyone the fuck back” (screenshots below)
Confuse the issue by asking seemingly innocent question (concern trolling): “What about X? Have you considered Y? Are you concerned about Z?”
Here’s how I dealt with them.
First, when they disagree with your cause: I had a woman DM me on Instagram and politely tell me that she doesn’t agree with me politically, but she appreciates that I’m using my platform to support a cause I care about. I totally respect that.
Then there were the #MAGA morons who decided to lob potshots from their anonymous accounts with hateful comments.
Unfortunately for them, this New York Times bestselling author is considerably smarter than the usual empty-headed cretins they deal with at the local parking lot where they spend their Saturday nights.
You can safely ignore twitter commenters whose feeds are filled with hateful posts, whose headshots are cartoon characters wearing a birthday hat, and who seem to share one thing in common: the intellectual aptitude of a gnat. Just move on — they already live in a prison in their own mind.
But beyond anonymous critics, there were the more insidious critics who try to confuse the issue by concern trolling, or asking question after question after question.
Here’s what you must understand: These people will never support your cause, whether it’s a fundraiser or a business or your plan to lose weight. They have no interest in a genuine discussion (if they did, they would engage privately). They’re asking questions because getting others riled up is their entertainment. And, to put it delicately, my successful friends never leave comments like this.
“If it was X, MAYBE I would donate” = “I will never donate”
You can delete or ignore these comments. I intentionally responded to a couple so my followers could see my responses.
If you decide to try something new, remember this: Opinions are cheap. You’ll ALWAYS get people saying, “What about this? What about that? How do where every cent of this $100 is going? If you did X, maybe I would donate.”
Oh, ok. Suddenly, some anonymous guy with an icon of a banana has developed a 14-page quiz on Kantian ethics that you must answer before they donate $100. In reality, they have the moral compass of a cupholder.
Guess what? They’re not your audience.
Actual supporters didn’t demand that I jump through their gauntlet of requirements for one hundred dollars. They wanted to get involved, they clicked DONATE, and they showed up.
It’s fine if not everyone supports your cause (whether it’s a business, a new hobby, or a fundraiser). But I wanted to show you some of the worst critics of all — the ones who try to derail you by questioning you, by concern trolling you, by trying to make you second-guess yourself — so you can see that these people are everywhere.
You want to raise money for your own cause? Great! Do it. My wife and I saw something we wanted to support and we raised over $12,000 to help these families. If you’re more comfortable lobbing hateful comments on social media, then sit down and get the fuck out of my way. I have work to do.
LESSON #4: Use your time and money to live a Rich Life
THIS is a Rich Life — where you use your time and money to help other people.
When something outrages you or inspires you…when something makes you MAD or SAD or THRILLED, that’s an opportunity to lean into it and use your time and money to improve it.
It’s not about needing to have $1,000,000. A tiny amount can change someone’s life.
IWT isn’t simply about earning more money. I show you how to do that in my book, my business courses, and my career courses.
But to be able to use your time and money to help other people…that’s another level.
I want you to see how that you can use money to support the things you care about. Your family, your health, and yes — giving back.
I want to show you that raising money for something you believe in comes in lots of shapes and colors and sizes. It doesn’t mean you have to attend a black-tie gala in Manhattan. I never wrote fundraising checks as a child — but I did do “sewa” (volunteer service) at my local Sikh temple.
I want to show you how to pick a goal, then go after it without anyone or anything getting in your way. Critics? GTFO. What about the perfect financial structu–forget all that! Raise the money and send it.
More than anything, I want you to know that you can define your Rich Life. This is ours. I hope you find yours and lean into it.
How we raised $10,000+ for a charity (actual metrics) is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.
from Money https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/how-we-raised-10000-for-a-charity/ via http://www.rssmix.com/
0 notes
paulckrueger · 5 years ago
Text
How we raised $10,000+ for a charity (actual metrics)
What happens when you try to raise money for a cause you care about?
Last week, my wife and I held a fundraiser in NYC. We both come from families of immigrants and we wanted to raise money for families being separated at the border. What we’ve seen has made us feel helpless, outraged, and sad. But we also know that we’re in the enviable position of being able to do something about it.
This was the first time we’ve ever raised money for a fundraiser together and I want to share what we learned (plus all the numbers).
VIDEO: My wife and me explaining why we launched this fundraiser
It turns out I LOVE fundraising. I think it’s because…
It’s a cause I care about
I have friends and readers I can share this with
Thanks to having 40,000 customers, I have no fear of asking for money. Especially from IWT readers who asked for a free ticket to my event, and (1) one had spent $10,000 on my products, (2) another worked at Amazon, and (3) a third was an engineer at VISA. I showed no mercy.
MRW when someone asks for a free ticket to my charity event, but they’ve spent $10,000 on my products
Our fundraising metrics
We raised $12,975, beating our goal of $5,000!! (We donated 100% of that money.)
To raise money, we first asked a few friends in the nonprofit space for their advice. They pointed us to groups we started researching, then we settled on Families Belong Together to donate our funds to.
Our next step was to email friends. We emailed about 50 friends and family, raising $2,450. Some people donated to come to the NYC event we held, while others just donated funds.
Then Cass and I recorded a video explaining why we were raising money and why this is important to us, which I posted on my Instagram feed/stories, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The video got watched about 50,000 times.
That video linked back to our Eventbrite page, which got ~2,000 views and raised ~$9,000.
We held an event in NYC on Friday, where we hosted about 35 people in a space donated by https://energi.life/welcome/. Paola from Families Belong Together shared stories about what she’s seen along the border, along with drinks served by Andrew from Crafttender (big thanks to everyone for making this possible!!).
Overall, for our first fundraiser, this was a big success!!
Paola shared her experiences working with Families Belong Together. Some of my friends cried during the presentation.
LESSON #1: Get comfortable with small numbers
Initially, Cass and I set a goal of $50,000. When we went to a few fundraising friends and asked for advice, one of them smiled. “Why don’t you start small?” he gently asked us. Even though it was hard to hear, he was right.
I learned that I had to get comfortable with smaller numbers.
This wasn’t some massive fundraiser where we could leverage crazy press or the entire IWT business (e.g., when IWT raised $300,000 for Pencils of Promise).
After running IWT, where I oversee a team that manages complex lead acquisition, funnels, conversion, and products, I’ve gotten used to big numbers. To give you an example, during the last week when my wife and I raised $12,975 for this fundraiser, one individual IWT student bought 3 courses equaling $10,388.
So with this fundraiser, it was humbling to start small and be satisfied with small numbers and modest goals. This was my wife and me setting up our first fundraiser together, trying to find a free event space, and trying to send anything we can to support families at the border.
I had to reframe our new goal of our goal of “only” $5,000 as a win. When you’re starting something new, it’s hard to remember that starting small is how EVERYONE starts off. This was a great reminder. Most of all, we were just thrilled to be able to contribute to a cause we care about.
LESSON #2: When a friend asks, show up
You might have seen “Ramit’s 10 Money Rules” that I posted a while back. Look closely at #4:
#4: “Never question spending money on books, appetizers, health, or donating to a friend’s charity fundraiser.”
Read about Ramit’s Money Rules 
There’s a reason I always donate to friends’ charity events. When your friend emails you for a fundraiser, they really want your help (in general, people HATE asking for money, so when they do, there’s usually a reason for it).
If you respond and donate quickly, they’ll appreciate it.
And if you donate more than they asked for, they will never forget it.
For example, Sam Gavis-Hughson is a Zero To Launch graduate who helps job candidates prepare for their coding interviews at companies like Google and Facebook. He used our Zero To Launch program to recently run a $50,000 launch. When we posted about our fundraiser, he was one of our first donors and came in big with a $500 donation — that’s more than our requested $100 donation. I will never forget it.
Other friends never donated. Maybe they were busy or missed the email. But I’ll never forget that, either.
Showing up doesn’t just mean spending money. It also means physically showing up when it’s important to your friend.
Over the last couple of weeks, two of my friends have launched books. I went to Nir Eyal’s launch of his book. A few days later, Cass and I went to support Paula Rizzo’s launch of her book. Yes, I’m busy. Yes, it was out of the way. Yes, we showed up.
Showing up for Paula Rizzo’s book launch of Listful Living
When an author launches their book, they’re nervous, they’re excited, and most of all, THEY DESPERATELY WANT YOUR SUPPORT.
SHOW UP!! Show up for birthdays parties, weddings, book launches, and charity events. ALWAYS.
Those are moments in someone’s life that mean so much to them.
Cass and I learned the importance of showing up when we were planning our wedding. After we were married, we made a set of joint rules for attending other people’s weddings:
Always be first on the dance floor
Be the couple that you can seat anywhere because you know we’ll get the table having fun (AKA, don’t be a dud)
Make sure your gifts arrive before the wedding
After going through our first fundraiser, our new rules are:
Always donate to our friends’ fundraisers
Always donate MORE than they ask for (an extra $100 or $200 will always be remembered)
LESSON #3: Deal with critics
Invariably, I had some people who didn’t agree with the cause we were raising money for. I think this stops a lot of people from ever getting started with something like this (or starting a business). What will people think? What will they say? Will my friends get annoyed by me asking them for money?
Whenever you try something new, you’re going to encounter critics. It happened with this fundraiser.
LOL at the critics who decided that instead of donating, they’d leave angry comments on a fundraiser for a good cause.
I typically find that they use 3 strategies:
Telling me they disagree with my cause
Hateful comment: “Send everyone the fuck back” (screenshots below)
Confuse the issue by asking seemingly innocent question (concern trolling): “What about X? Have you considered Y? Are you concerned about Z?”
Here’s how I dealt with them.
First, when they disagree with your cause: I had a woman DM me on Instagram and politely tell me that she doesn’t agree with me politically, but she appreciates that I’m using my platform to support a cause I care about. I totally respect that.
Then there were the #MAGA morons who decided to lob potshots from their anonymous accounts with hateful comments.
Unfortunately for them, this New York Times bestselling author is considerably smarter than the usual empty-headed cretins they deal with at the local parking lot where they spend their Saturday nights.
You can safely ignore twitter commenters whose feeds are filled with hateful posts, whose headshots are cartoon characters wearing a birthday hat, and who seem to share one thing in common: the intellectual aptitude of a gnat. Just move on — they already live in a prison in their own mind.
But beyond anonymous critics, there were the more insidious critics who try to confuse the issue by concern trolling, or asking question after question after question.
Here’s what you must understand: These people will never support your cause, whether it’s a fundraiser or a business or your plan to lose weight. They have no interest in a genuine discussion (if they did, they would engage privately). They’re asking questions because getting others riled up is their entertainment. And, to put it delicately, my successful friends never leave comments like this.
“If it was X, MAYBE I would donate” = “I will never donate”
You can delete or ignore these comments. I intentionally responded to a couple so my followers could see my responses.
If you decide to try something new, remember this: Opinions are cheap. You’ll ALWAYS get people saying, “What about this? What about that? How do where every cent of this $100 is going? If you did X, maybe I would donate.”
Oh, ok. Suddenly, some anonymous guy with an icon of a banana has developed a 14-page quiz on Kantian ethics that you must answer before they donate $100. In reality, they have the moral compass of a cupholder.
Guess what? They’re not your audience.
Actual supporters didn’t demand that I jump through their gauntlet of requirements for one hundred dollars. They wanted to get involved, they clicked DONATE, and they showed up.
It’s fine if not everyone supports your cause (whether it’s a business, a new hobby, or a fundraiser). But I wanted to show you some of the worst critics of all — the ones who try to derail you by questioning you, by concern trolling you, by trying to make you second-guess yourself — so you can see that these people are everywhere.
You want to raise money for your own cause? Great! Do it. My wife and I saw something we wanted to support and we raised over $12,000 to help these families. If you’re more comfortable lobbing hateful comments on social media, then sit down and get the fuck out of my way. I have work to do.
LESSON #4: Use your time and money to live a Rich Life
THIS is a Rich Life — where you use your time and money to help other people.
When something outrages you or inspires you…when something makes you MAD or SAD or THRILLED, that’s an opportunity to lean into it and use your time and money to improve it.
It’s not about needing to have $1,000,000. A tiny amount can change someone’s life.
IWT isn’t simply about earning more money. I show you how to do that in my book, my business courses, and my career courses.
But to be able to use your time and money to help other people…that’s another level.
NAME, I want you to see how that you can use money to support the things you care about. Your family, your health, and yes — giving back.
I want to show you that raising money for something you believe in comes in lots of shapes and colors and sizes. It doesn’t mean you have to attend a black-tie gala in Manhattan. I never wrote fundraising checks as a child — but I did do “sewa” (volunteer service) at my local Sikh temple.
I want to show you how to pick a goal, then go after it without anyone or anything getting in your way. Critics? GTFO. What about the perfect financial structu–forget all that! Raise the money and send it.
More than anything, I want you to know that you can define your Rich Life. This is ours. I hope you find yours and lean into it.
If you need an idea for a Christmas present then think about the Rubik’s Cube which is the best selling puzzle toy in the World.
How we raised $10,000+ for a charity (actual metrics) is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.
from Surety Bond Brokers? Business https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/how-we-raised-10000-for-a-charity/
0 notes
thingsiwasafraidtosay · 6 years ago
Text
My story
I'm gonna try to keep this short and on more of the relationship side of it. When I was a few days from turning 13, I locked eyes with this guy and just fell hard for him. Until that point I was pretty much lesbian cause I'd only been into girls. But yeah I fell hard. I'd mark the days on the calendar when I'd see him, and I was painfully shy at that age, I was afraid to go up and talk to him. My sister and his sister were friends, so we would all hang out. We never actually spoke but it's like we had this secret communication with our eyes. And when we'd lock eyes it just made me light up, when he wouldn't look at me one day or be distant I'd cry when I got home xD. A year went by and not much happened. I knew he liked me though. He'd always stare at me, even my sister noticed. Like one night I was on their trampoline with my sister and his sister and was doing flips and he stood about 10 feet away just staring xD. When we went to the fair I'd go on rides with him and my sister would go with his sister. Every time my heart would race and my skin tingled every time we accidentally touched. One time we all played hide and seek in the basement. I was it and I had gotten his sister and my sister and he just comes walking out and just stands there and my sister says I gotta touch him. It was the weirdest moment ever. I slowly walked up to him, and touched his arm with my index finger while he just stood there xD. And on this quiz on fb, he said he trusted me with his life. Well he answered yes to the question. And I just had it bad. One day, he just gave me this sad look as he was walking to his car and I couldn't figure out what it meant. I didn't see him for awhile after that. One day few near the end of the year, October ish, my friend on fb kept telling me to play this fb game with her. So I did. And it was this online chatting type game, basically the same as imvu, it was called yoville. I started playing that and talking to people on it for fun. So, one day I found out my crush had a gf, and I felt a sense of Led on and cheated on. I wanted to completely move on and forget his existence. So. I turned to the game. To just forget him and maybe if I fell in love with someone else, then there wouldn't be anymore hurt and I'd forget him. And man, I had no idea what I was getting into. That's when I met my first love Austin. He was so sweet and different. We'd stay up till 2 am talking about everything and nothing. And I knew it was love. He seemed like a perfect boyfriend. We'd go on dates on the game almost every night. And after we'd go to his place or mine and we'd talk and talk. We'd write on white board "Austin + Reed= Forever". Also how I got that name. When I first made an account, I just used the name of my favourite character in my fave book, not thinking much of it at the time, but the name just became apart of me. So, I find out austins been cheating, a lot. I even catch him with his best female friend saying, "I want you, my gf doesn't even kiss me anymore." Kinda because the only time I did was because he'd act cause I was so nervous. I'd wait for him to make the first move or him to ask me. So yeah one day I got tired of being cheated on and him begging for me back and me taking him back and repeat. He wanted another chance and I was afraid to say no because I wanted to say yes but I was also afraid to say yes so I kept running and hiding from him. One day, he keeps following me around and says this is the last time he'll ask. I wanted to say yes but I said no. After that, i felt for the longest time everything he did was revenge. He said he was quitting the game for good and left for a week. He gave me mad anxiety attacks. So a week later he comes back and he seems fine and like we can be friends and he was friends with this one ex on the game before him, didn't feel that strongly for the guys, he cheated on me with 3 girlfriends, banged 5 chicks and had a wife, idk maybe Austin hanging around that dude was bad, but he's all like. "I'm gonna break your heart". He used to be so romantic, sending me love songs And then he was sending me the song break your heart by taio. I thought it was nothing. But he became a heartless jerk and did everything in his power to hurt me. I'd be on my knees crying and begging and he'd tell me to stop harassing him. He treated me like shit for 4 years. Dating all my friends, cheating, reeling me back in, throwing me back away. It was a huge part of my life. I felt the way about him that I did about my first kindergarten friend. Like the person is apart of me. The other half of me. All the good memory's of him loving me to him being so cold and putting me through the worst things a person can put someone through. One of my friends sent him this song called face down and was like "do you feel like a man when you push her around??" And another friend witnessed it. He was like "you want a lie? Here's one. Reed, I love you." And my friend was like "wtf! Why would you say that to her?!" I just couldn't get free of him. I had great friends on the game that accepted me for me, unlike my real friends who were complete dicks to me all the time and would put me down when I'd be myself. So I'd make a new account to get away from him. He always found me. I tried to move on from with him another friend. This guy who's liked me for a year. Who would always just listen when I'd rant about Austin and tell him what was new. He'd just sit on me outside my house on the game on the seat swing thing. And he kept telling me to end things and block him. And he'd hit on me all the time and compliment me. One day I had enough of Austin and told my friend to tell Craig that if he wanted to be with me, that I'd be waiting. So I didn't know what took so long. But finally, he came and we talked and we started dating. And it was a great relationship. He was good to me and we'd be silly together and I could be myself around him. I couldn't show my silly side to Austin, he'd tell me I was acting stupid. But with Craig I could be completely my crazy self. He'd do thing like being like, pushing my up against a Tree and kissing me and being like *takes your shoes* and would run to the bedroom xD. I didn't feel sexually attracted to dicks so during our sexual time I didn't really understand it. But I liked when he'd be playing with my boobs. And all my friends liked him. The only worry was his friend Hannah, who had a crush on him. And I knew it and kept trying to tell him that she was tryna steal him from me. He was so blind, like she'd write love crap in her mail about him. (You could read anyone's mail). And it just seemed all great and happy. One day though, Hannah came at me and was cussing me out. I had my own way of cussing people out. While girls like her were like "lol you ain't cute" and act all high and mighty, I'd be like "ugly bald ass weave headed tree truck! I bet you lick snails on the sidewalk!" So I guess Hannah got to him before I could. And idk what she told him but he was pissed. I'd never seen him pissed. He was the always happy kind of guy. And it was bad timing too. I was at my friend deans house and wrote on her white board "I love you like a love song". And I was gonna tell him that I loved him for real. So he comes in all pissed and I didn't know what was going on. So I was like, dude she was so mean to me! She totally likes you! Why can't you see that?! And he's not listening. All like "why tf were you mean to Hannah?!" Guess he cared more about her than me cause he didn't listen to a thing I said. And he dumped me just like that. I was thinking, oh it's miscommunication and everything will be fine. We even seemed like we were fine again after a few days, he was all flirting with me again and everything. But then I find out he has a gf. And it crushed me. And I'm all like, wtf is happening, you dumped me days ago. But he seemed happy with his new girl. I'd just sit on the seat swing we'd always sit on together and wait for him to come. When he's online he'd Always come to me. He didn't. One day I went to him and all his friends and her friends were there and they were making out and it crushed Me. I was like "congrats" and left, thinking he'd come after me. He never did. So I'd just sit on the swing and wait. I waited 10 months. For nothing. The chick knew it was killing me to. When I'd go to him, she was all over him. And they even kicked me out to have some private time. One day I broke down and told him how I felt. He told me Layla forced him into dating me. He said he never liked me. But I knew it was a lie. And I didn't know why he'd say that. So I went back to Austin again and he said he still loved me and yeah. I'd always make the same mistake and try to be with someone else to forget the hurt from the last person. There was also Alex, my friend set me up with, cheated on me and I went back to Austin. Then Shane, who seemed genuine, he liked me and would keep telling me that he wanted to tell the girl he likes that he likes her but said he couldn't do it and I was like "Shane. I like you too." And idk what happened, but he wouldn't make any moves to date me and one day started saying he loves me and I'm like, no you don't, don't joke with me about that, I take it seriously. Then started to tell me to off myself, and we were friends on fb so he sent me pics of weapons to hurt myself with. Then started dating this chick he'd told me a lot about that he likes, he'd talk about her a lot, so that was fun. Went back to Austin again. Then on the 5th year with Austin, he told me he met a girl in real life and told me about how much he loves me. The whole time I could have tried to date someone in rl, some guys liked me, but I didn't even notice them. It's kinda like dating your teacher secretly and no one can know, and instead of showing them off and doing couple stuff, you're shacked up in his apartment, missing out on life. But I didn't see any other guys. I was always loyal. So Austin kept going on about how amazing this girl in and talking about shit in details, and I did not want to hear it but was all like "oh yeah that's great, good for you". Like yeah totally doesn't kill me instead at alll So I was tired of that. I was done with love. I was done with it for a few months. But still couldn't move on. I thought maybe a rebound. It was the end of 2012 and me and this guy named Evan started talking. He was a friends ex and we'd talk about how my friend who was also his ex, was in a toxic relationship with this douche and we kept telling her to leave him. And then one day we just started flirting. He told me he had a gf but wanted to dumped her. Idk why I thought I was the exception. I didn't know he had a gf before I had found out about him and his ex Katie flirting. So he'd been flirting with both of us and I came to that shocking realization only last year. That it was another red flag I missed. But yeah he was flirting hardcore and I was flirting back and we talked for hours. And at the end he's saying how amazing I am and I'm like, what I'm just me. And he's like "pretty big deal flirting with someone as extremely beautiful as you". After a week he broke up with his gf and started dating me. I would kind of ask him every day if he dumped her yet. Didn't realize at the time that if someone if willing to cheat with you, they'll cheat on you. So me and Austin would still talk though. Evan would always tell me how amazing I am and I believed it all. But now it was all just his fake "I'm the perfect boyfriend" act. One day Austin said he was leaving for good and I still had feelings for him. I gave him a kiss goodbye and he told me to do it again. Just doing it the first time I knew it was wrong but maybe he hasn't seen it or something idk. And I told Evan about it, he didn't like it. And I guess I had told him he could get even and kiss some girl. It was just an empty gesture and I was an extremely apologetic person back then. But that's the excuse I got when I found out he kissed his friend Abby. He told me he didn't kiss her. I found out from her he did and he called her sexy. And then he brings up how I said I could and I couldn't stop wondering if it would have happened if I hadn't of have Austin The goodbye kiss. That was only the beginning. I never thought anyone could hurt me more than Austin did. I thought it was impossible to top 5 years of the things he did to me. With my and Evans relationship, it was the most real feeling one I've had. I made a kik cause he and Katie asked me to and it switched from talking on fb and yoville to on here. We'd watch movies together, send each other love songs, and I let him in more than I've ever let anyone in. I felt like I could trust him. I'd be afraid to tell bfs like, my fave movie cause then whenever I'd think about it and just think about the guy, since I was weird like that and everything would just be a constant reminder of the person and I didn't want that. But I let him in. I told him a ton and shared my world with him and he became the center of my world. I've never said I wanted to marry someone before, but I told Evan I wanted to marry him. He thought it was just something every girl thought, but I was like, no it's special, I swore when I was a kid I'd never get married, and I've never wanted to marry anyone, but I would marry you. He was the first person I showed my body to. It was my idea. He never showed anyone, I hadn't shown anyone, I thought it meant something to him. I didn't know he'd show it to anyone that asked. It wasn't special like I thought it was. He had very low self esteem and I was constantly picking him up. And he'd cheat a lot without meaning to. Always some excuse. He showed his bff amber, who I Knew had a crush on him but he kept denying, some things you shouldn't show a friend when you have a gf. And I even brought up the Hannah and Craig thing because it felt like that all over again and I was like, no I refuse for this to happen again. He said they were just friends though. But he'd call her attractive. He called all my friends attractive. I'd get upset and he said he was tryna make them feel better. He showed amber a pic of his thigh, and I've seen him naked a lot so it felt very revealing to me, it was really close to His dick. And he also sent her the same pics he send of me in a towel right after he got out of the shower. And who knows what other crap he did. He'd never tell me, I found out from other people. So I felt I had to stalk to get answers to find out if he was cheating. I stalked his fb one day and he's super about privacy and was actually going to cut me out of his life just for doing that. Idk if he ever really cared about me. He never made time for me, he wasn't loyal, he'd check out other chicks in rl, like staring at boobs and ass, while I'd never even notice guys, and I made so much time for him, he even put me down and made me feel pathetic about it and told me to go get a life. He never had a real gf or kissed a girl or anything and again I assumed it was because he was waiting for someone but no girls were just into him. Only the ugly ones he said. But still I was blind. He never fought for me. Maybe he didn't because he knew I'd always come back. In 2014 he left me for a girl. I knew it in my heart but he denied. He was too weak to break up with me that I had to break up with him. I was just balling and he knew that and he wouldn't reply and I'd just be like "goodbye" and delete my kik, I must have made about 50 kiks, no lie. All in hopes that he'd fight for me. He never did. He never cared when I was hurt. Just be like "sorry you feel that way" after I told him I was balling my eyes and couldn't even get up to blow my nose so I was using my shirt. I can't remember exactly what happened, but it was one of the worst nights. We were fighting about something again, well I was fighting, he'd just be like "stop making me feel awful". Well it's not my fault he did what he did and me being upset about it and wanting him to take responsibility for it was making him feel "awful". So I was upset and he stopped replying and I thought he blocked me and he just left me there to cry in the chat and it just all hit me and I started begging for him to reply. My mind just blacked out to all the darkness, it rarely happen Happened, but it did and all I could think was I couldn't live anymore. I had a self harming problem. It all started when my friend told me about it few years before. It was kind of two friends actually. Saying how they'd do that to make the pain go away and it worked and I tried to it to see if it helped because I was desperate. And I had a problem. So that night, I just forced myself to go deep and that if I couldn't then I'm weak and I'm not really in pain. It's like, trying to prove on the outside how much pain you are on the inside. And I just wrote goodbye on a piece of paper and it was all so morbid, rubbing my blood on it and sending him to him. He literally replied ":/" a few hours or days later. I just disappeared for a week and that was literally all he said. But anyways, I was really going to end my life, I didn't know how, but I just knew I had to. I got on yoville to tell Austin goodbye. And idk what would have happened if he wasn't online. When he found out he was kinda freaked. He kind of thought it was his fault that I was such a mess. He told me to never hurt myself again. And I just didn't know why he even cared. He spent 5 months making it up to me. Made sure that I was eating and made me promise never to hurt myself again. Told me to stay away from Evan. He never said he loved me but I felt like he was helping me because he loves me as much as I loved him and he wanted to be with me still. That we'd be together again. But he said he was leaving for good and it was time to move on. It did help. But I ended up going back to Evan again. He was like, the love of my life. He was my everything and I was addicted. I was so in love with him that I'd draw him and do all these things to show how much I loved him. He always thought he was ugly and no girls wanted him but I'd tell him every day how beautiful he is in my eyes. But I guess he wasn't getting enough of that from me and kept cheating on me. Flirting with my friends and a lot of stuff. I'd get upset and he'd tell me to just leave him and That's he's not perfect and makes mistakes. And I could never get over all the things he did. But I never felt like he was truly sorry. But still I kept putting up with all the pain and constant disappointments. He never remembered my bday. Even last year he didn't. He never said anything to me on Valentine's Day. He did Nothing for me. I didn't realize he was using me for sex and an ego boost. So, 2015, he goes to camp and for once, I feel free. I don't have to put up with his crap. I felt so free, that I actually just wanted to delete kik and forget it all. I felt like I was suffocating and in his cage. He could have talked to me when he was gone, he could have, if he really loved me, he would have. You're not allowed to have phones at that camp, but he could have sneaked it in and texted me at night. He could have. He didn't. So I wrote him a letter. I sent him a poloroid pic of me, a bracelet I stayed up late making for him, a guitar pick, and a letter about how I love him. I even made the bracelet look like raindrops, since our song was "between the raindrops". And I'd listen to it every night on loop as I'd fall asleep. I let myself fall so deeply for him, deep like the ocean. He was gone for a month, and in the end I just wanted to be free of all the hurt. I had cut my hair off and dyed it blonde. I decided to just wait till he got back then talk to him. But I already knew he'd just leave me when he got back. But to my surprise he said he got my letter, he didn't open it right away and wasn't excited about it, he didn't rip into it, he put it in his bag and was gonna read it later, the type of stuff he'd disappoint me with every day. But he said he kissed the letter the same spot I did. I put on redish pink lipstick and kissed the letter. So I thought it meant things were good. Guess he just wanted to kiss a girl and be wanted by a girl that bad. He actually never even wanted to meet me either or say anything about meeting up, but he also would say he'd cry if he saw me. But anyways, I tell him I love him and he doesn't say it back. I feel in my gut that something is wrong. But I decide to talk to him about it later. The next day I confront him about it. I tell him he has to step up or step out. I tell him love me or leave me. He picks leave. And I ask him why he didn't say he loves me back. He told me he didn't love me anymore. I was crying, he told me we could be friends or friends with benefi Benefits cause he was horny. But other than that, it's over. And I was like, im crying right now and you're saying that shit to me. And I was so done But a week later we still talk again. Idk why but since the start I felt in my gut that something would happen when he got to college. I told him he'd leave me for a girl. I just felt it and tried to many times to leave before that happened. So I could be long gone and over it. But. So he's in college and he's asking me for naked pics. And my dumb self thinks it means we'll get back together. So I show him stuff and then we don't talk again for awhile. One of my friends tell me to do the no contact rule. So I force myself to go without talking to him for a month. Another friend set me up with Branden and we became close friends. I was still loyal to Evan. I was still waiting for him to come back. I only did the no contact so he'd fight for me. But he didn't. And then, after a month, I found out he had a gf. And I was put into a constant anxiety attack. I could feel it even the night before I found out. I thought, what if he found someone? Idk I just knew and even started shaking. So I texted Evan on his phone number. I begged him to tell me who it was. I was just out of my mind and scared and hurt. And he just kept telling me how happy he is with her and that they've been dating for a month. I lost my mind. It was like, every bad thing that Austin ever did to me, all at once. I felt like I was shot 8 times and I could even count each spot I felt a bullet. I also felt this sharp knife stabbing pain in my back. And I couldn't breathe or stop shaking. I told him I was going to end my life and just threatening if he didn't tell me who it was. And I asked if it was the girl in 2014 he almost left me for but she actually did want his ass but he still kept the pics of them he had on his phone and even laughed about it to my friend like "don't tell reed she'll kill me" He said it wasn't her. He wasn't going to tell me who it was. I found out in my own. And on my own I put all the pieces together. All the shit I knew by the cryptic way he'd talk and the gut feelings that were always right. It was this blond chick that Had been hugging him in a pic of fb when he graduated high school. By the way she had her hand on him, I could tell she liked him. A girl always knows. I assumed she was one of the ugly girls that he wouldn't go after. He even told me not to worry about her. I found out he had been with her when he asked me for naked pics that last night. He cheated on her. It was one last sex stuff I guess since it takes awhile to get that stuff with someone new. So I was in pain for a long time. I couldn't move on and I couldn't stop talking to him. Every time I'd find out something else. I'd see all their pics of them cuddling and alll this shit. He did everything for her and did nothing for me. He brought her food when she said she was hungry, he took her out on vday, when on vday all he did was make me cry. He let her lay on his chest when she was sick and played with her hair. And I couldn't stop stalking. I couldn't stop talking to him. I wanted for it all to not be real. I found out he kissed her, a month later finding out he had sex with her, finding out all this stuff and every time it left me feeling paralyzed. I hated him but I loved. And idk how many nights I'd pray to just fall asleep and just couldn't stop shaking. I just lost everything in me. I became so numb. That's how my relationship with god became strong, I'd just be on my knees, in tears, begging for the pain to go away. And I'd be so grateful when even a little drop went away, enough for me to fall asleep. I didn't want to self harm again, but I did one last time. I didn't want to ever forget what he did and I wanted a scar so I'd remember. I was afraid I'd take him back. I wanted that mark to be a reminder of the pain. I had Branden and kristy who had been there for me. Branden and I even started getting feelings. I was doing the same thing again, trying to have someone new to forget the last person. Though this time I was terrified to get hurt and I was so hesitant. But I still tried, I slowly started to open up to him and let him in, I felt like I co Could trust him, because he had been there through everything. He even played go fish with me. I was in so much pain I was delusional and kept calling it "gold fish" and later he told me he was thinking "wtf is gold fish?" But didn't say anything. So I share pics with him and he does too and tells me he falls asleep hugging a pillow pretending it's me. And all this sweet crap. But he wouldn't date me. I kept asking why he wouldn't ask me out. He told me before he's been hurt really badly by a girl he loved and she put him through a lot of pain and I felt like "look at me im here, I'll never hurt you, you could easily be with me". But nah and he kept going on about "the chase" and how I was too easy or something and told me he's been flirting the whole time. Idk if he knew what a big deal it was for me to let him in and even show him pics after everything I had just been through. After that I completely shut down and felt so cold inside that my heart and soul felt frozen like ice. I couldn't stop being a bitch. I didn't care about anyone's feelings. And all I could think was, "what's wrong with me?" So one day I'm using this app on here called match and it matches you with people. Didn't think I'd find anyone, and assumed all guys on kik just wanna hook up. So one day this guy Damien texts me along with others, but he stood out. We start talking and he's all smooth and I actually out on Taylor swift and started dancing to "sparks fly". It had been forever since I just felt like that and just wanted to enjoy the feeling. But I thought he's just another guy that wants nudes. Things got crazy. He was head over heels for me while I was going on with me life and still trying to move on from Evan. So he'd keep texting me and just came off kind of obsessed and crazy. When I was on vacation he knew exactly what I did that day and I was freaked out. But I guess it was a normal guesstimate. And he's all getting mad and saying he wants to be with me and I don't know how to respond so I'm like "I'm gay. I like pizza" kind of replied which makes him even more mad. Very angry and controlling. One day we talk and he shows me his dog and I'm thinking, oh maybe he's not crazy. And then the next he's yelling at me to admit I like him. I knew I wasn't ready to date and told him that so many times. But he didn't listen. He didn't wanna get to know me, just wanted to date me. It was all so weird to me. I kept telling him I like getting to know a person first and stuff and staying up late and just talking about everything and nothing. I'm the type that connects with someone through talking. He says he connects with sex and he's banged 9 chicks who knows how many times. So I'm thinking "yeah for sure done with him". Idk why I even responded to him. I'd send him funny memes and he told me not to send that shit. And couldn't send screen shots or song lyrics either. And I'm like, is this guys for real? He's acting like he owns me when he doesn't even know me. Yep that's the guy I spent the last year with ☺️. He didn't ever listen to me. I tried to just stop talking to him but he didn't go away. So, I ended up stalking Evan again and See he went to prom with his gf. That's what he wanted so bad. Every year he'd tell me he wanted to go to prom and I'd tell him to go but he wouldn't without a date. So I threw him a prom on imvu. I did so much for his ass. When he struggled with studying I'd even start think game where every 10 minutes I'd send a naked pic, and he was motivated to study. So anyways. I end up telling Damien about prom and being upset about it like "guess he got what he wanted" and Damien's like "will you go to prom with me?" And I'm like "whaat" and he's like "I borrowed my dads car". Idk and just was being sweet and I was surprised by it. Then Evan and I end up talking again and Damien's upset about that. Saying how he appreciates every second I give him and how this asshole never gave a shit, and it was surprisingly refreshing. And idk he just seemed so sweet and into me that I thought I could give it a shot. I thought I'd be fine and I could still work on my issues. But man I was wrong. I was in way over my head. It was always constant fighting. I actually thought he liked yelling at me for sport, since he did it so much and literally got mad at everything. Idk it was crazy. Things started to get better and he would keep asking for stuff and I thought he can't be tryna use me for my body when he already had so many girls. And I would be thinking "why tf you online for? Why you want my nudes for? You had 9 girls aren't you satisfied yet?" And I said I don't easily cross that line but when I do I stay across. I can't think of a single time though where we're just talking and connecting. All just fighting. It was literally the only time he'd talk to me. I kept just living my life though. I'd take pics like me just grabbing my boob and just being playful like that, completely not in a sexual way, just in a being silly way. But he blew tf up and called me a slut and I'm like, wtf why are you getting upset about everything I do? And idk he says this shit to hurt me and I invite him in this group chat and kind of flirt with this guy To make Damien a little jealous idk. We played truth or dare and they dared me to write some guys name on my head and I'm like, I got a face mask on, I'll just write it on my chest. It was way above my chest and you couldn't see shit. Completely innocent, just a dare. Damien screen shot it and kept it for like forever and held it against me. So he's blowing tf up and I'm like "why are you upset? We aren't even dating". And he kept repeating "we aren't even dating" like 50 times like a psycho. And I don't even know what to think of that. I was out of there. I stayed off kik for a week. And then he's all sad and telling his friend he missed me. Tf he miss about me? Yelling at me? Like we don't even know each other yet he acts like he owns me. It was all just so bizarre. Idk how it happened though but we got closer somehow. Seeing him all sad and hurt just triggered me and I wanted to be there for him and give it a shot. The way he was talking about me and how deep his feelings were got to me. My ego so low I've thought about making a twitter and tweeting about all the stuff my exs wouldn't do for my. "My exs wouldn't buy a stick of butter for my. My exs wouldn't give me roses. Not even a piece of grass. My exs wouldn't take one step for me". All that kind of stuff. Me and Damien got closer somehow and I showed him stuff. It was a fun night. One of the few good times we've had. Just how he was kinda drew me in. Saying he'd punch any guy that hit on me and stuff. But I still wasn't over Evan. One night Damien's going off and idr what it was about but I was shaking and I was like "you're just trying to hurt me" and he's like "you bet your ass I am!" And that scared me even more. He was going off on me for hours to the point where I was shaking. But he couldn't spend 5 minutes talking to me and getting to know me. He talked to all my friends and tried to turn them against me. Idk how he does it, just making it seem like I'm the bad guy. I was so upset that I texted Evan. And we became friends for awhile. I'd tell him What Damien would do and he'd tell me I didn't deserve it. And he'd hit on me and I didn't say anything and didn't stop him. When he'd say stuff like say I was pretty, it helped heal the hurt he caused. And one night I even flirted a little, and Damien went off on me. I couldn't be loyal to him and I didn't know why. He'd be all upset and say how he just wanted me and that I kept breaking his heart and I just felt like, "wait this is actually hurting you? You don't just yell a me for sport?" And I felt so much guilt for months. I just stopped doing anything that upset him. Idk it's just all a mess. It feels like an abusive relationship. He'd laugh when I'd say that and said I'm the abuser. And I told him so many times I was done and just. The last time I said I was done, he got really sick and went to urgent care. It's my fault. 5pm telling me he hated me 6pm saying I wreaked him 7pm saying he feels really sick an 8pm saying he's in urgent care. I cant say how many tears I've spent on him. He always seems like I'm hurting him and it kills me inside. I just wanted to get to know him. I just wanted to get over Evan and fix my issues. I just wanted to spend time with him. But it's like it's just been revenge to him. He even admit it twice. I don't show anyone when I'm hurt and crying. I showed it to Evan a few times and he made me feel like I was weak, and to Damien he called me a cry baby. But still I spent like every day crying about him and taking all the blame. Sometimes it felt like I went heartless and I couldn't stop. I told him even when I just say that I wanted him that it was so hard for me to say. And he's just like "well how about this, if you don't say those things, I'll leave you." He's threatened me so many times and I can't get away. So I decided if I do nothing he can't get upset. Showing no cleavage in pics, not doing anything wrong, just trying to stay out of trouble. And then he just stops talking to me hardly and I think I can just fade out and everything will be okay. But. It's like, I'm scared he'll hurt me and himself, just the whole situation is messed up. And yeah he still talks to me. If I do anything though I always feel extremely guilty and feel like I have to tell him. Idk I feel emotionally exhausted after typing all that. Didn't mean to get so into details. Every time I upset him, he blows up my kik and leaves a ton of voice mails and texts and it's just better to play it safe. I feel like he just wants me, to keep me like his possession. When I do nothing and behave, he stops texting me. He also feels the need to punish me like he's my dad. It's weird. So I'm just trying not To get in trouble
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