When You Wish
Guest Piece by Nichole Kappel
This one is special to me as I look up to this beautiful woman and treasure her friendship.
I am continually inspired by you, Nichole, thank you for sharing your story!
WE MADE IT TO DISNEY!! I full on cried like a baby during the fireworks last night at Magic Kingdom. As a single mom who struggled pretty bad financially, it was always a dream of mine to take my daughter to Disney someday. I had Olivia at the age of 24, but just a few short months after giving birth, I made the decision to leave her father, for reasons that we won’t summon from the dead at this time. This left me to do life as a single mom at the age of 24 years old. I think about myself at that age, and I think about how NOT ready I was for what life was about to throw at me. I think about my daughter now, she is almost 21, and I think about her three short years from now: going to college, working full time, figuring out life as an adult, having a baby, leaving a long term relationship with her child’s father and the stress that comes with a break up, being a single mom, figuring out health insurance, paying rent or a mortgage, paying for daycare, going through a nasty custody battle, dealing with lawyers and the court system, watching her friends go out and have fun while she is up with a sick baby all night long, and raising a human being all by herself. At the age of 24. I look back, or I think about my daughter now, and can’t even wrap my head around it.
I had gotten pregnant halfway through college, and I didn’t have the money for daycare after I had had my daughter. I never finished college because of this. How do you work full time to support a child, and go to school even part time, and take care of a baby?? I applied for whatever support I could through the county, but seeing as I was doing my best working full time, I didn’t qualify for much. Yes, my daughter’s father was involved and paid his due diligence with child support, but the child support was still not a full second income coming in, not even close. Pretty much everything I was making at my full-time job was going to daycare expenses. My years in the banking and mortgage industry didn’t cut it to pay the bills, and have the extra money necessary for a Disney vacation (much less any vacation). Nor did I have anyone by my side to help with taking a small child to Disney, or to simply share the excitement and magic with.
Olivia had the chance when she was little to go to Disney without me, and as happy as I was for her to be able to experience it - I won’t lie, it stung to know I wouldn’t get to see her experience something like the Magic Kingdom with me. It was hard knowing I couldn’t give her this experience.
“... I wouldn’t get to see her experience something like the Magic Kingdom with me. It was hard knowing I couldn’t give her this experience. ”
I know, I know, it’s not about vacations or what material things you provide your child that measures the amount of love. But still….
I always had a dream of getting into real estate. I was a very hard worker with a pretty amazing work ethic, and I knew if I could be in control of my income the sky was the limit. I was tired of working for someone else and seeing my hard work being capped at less than $20 an hour and only receiving a measly 1-2% raise every year. Unfortunately, so many things happened over the years raising Olivia that I probably don’t have enough room in this blog piece to get into right now, but life was pretty cruel to Olivia and I for a few years there, and we had to overcome some pretty tough obstacles.
Getting my real estate license seemed so unattainable. Who can quit their job, attend and pay for the education needed to get licensed, pay the bills, and have little to no income coming in for several years while you’re trying to get a real estate business off the ground? I sure as hell didn’t have THAT kind of money! I knew something needed to change. In 2018, the opportunity presented itself for me to jump into real estate head first. The first few years were ROUGH, to say the least. I had very little income coming in from 2018-2021 and wound up having to pick up sometimes a few part time jobs to support myself and my daughter. I also was in a relationship at the time that did provide some income, but he had children from a previous relationship that he was supporting as well.
Over the past few years, I have worked so hard to build a small real estate business and I also work part time as a server. For the first time in our lives, I can not only support myself and my daughter comfortably, but there’s also money left over for the fun things in life I had once only dreamed of. I also want to say that I do have the support of my family and friends, and I could not have gotten where I am without them. It also does get easier as your children get older and more self-sufficient, and eventually I did have the freedom to throw myself into my career.
Guys, WE MADE IT TO DISNEY TOGETHER!! This past winter I decided to take the leap and plan a trip to Disney World in Orlando, Florida. I still have sticker shock at how expensive it is to take your children to Disney. It’s straight up highway robbery in my opinion! I had never been to Disney myself, so this was like a double shot in the Bucket List department for me! I will say, it was 100% worth it to finally be able to experience the magic of Disney. It makes my momma heart so happy that I was able to do this with my little girl (who’s not so little anymore).
I’m not trying to make this a real estate plug, but I want you all to know that it’s this career that has provided me with the financial freedom to do some of these things I had only dreamed of doing with my child. It’s because of my family, friends, and past clients who support me and refer me to family and friends, and trust me with buying and selling- you guys are the reason I’m able to finally do things like this with my daughter, so, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart!!
One more thing- if you are a struggling single parent who feels like you’ll never be able to dig yourself out of the pits of financial hell, I’m here to tell you to hang on. Get up and bust your ass every day, don’t ever give up and keep making moves that propel your career and life forward. Get rid of the things and people that don’t support your future. Whatever you do, keep fucking going! You’ll get there someday, I PROMISE!!