I’m not paying for your Louis Vuitton shoes.

Unless your house has burst into flames, someone you love is sick, or you’re paying for funeral arrangements – don’t start a GoFundMe.

I don’t find it cute, funny, or reasonable seeing college students “needing money” for their trip to Europe. You made the conscious decision to study abroad, so it had to have crossed your mind that you would need money for your trip.

Here’s a question: What happens when you buy your plane ticket, thinking that you’ll make some money via your GoFundMe, and then you don’t make the money? Also, what exactly is it that we’re funding you for? Your Fendi shoes? A new Prada purse?

Is it because I’m bitter that you’re shopping in Paris? Maybe, but even so, I’m a poor college student, too, and if I put $5 in your GoFundMe, then that means I don’t get my Dunkin iced coffee for the day. So yes, I’m bitter – I won’t be partaking in your souvenir shopping for your family.

The point of starting a GoFundMe is usually for families to earn money for significant reasons. Most of the time, you’ll see a family trying to earn some money for sudden funeral arrangements, which is completely reasonable.

My mother had two very unexpected strokes, and an outrageous number of seizures extremely abruptly. My father had to take weeks off of work, which took a toll on my family for obvious reasons – he was working, while my mom was learning to walk again. Someone very generous decided to start a fundraiser to help with the never-ending pile of hospital bills. For that, my family was eternally grateful. So many people donated because their hearts went out to this sick woman, and her family of six.

That is what funding is about. Changing someone’s life, helping someone’s family, making a change in their heart – not their wardrobe.

Studying abroad isn’t even the worst of it all. Some people decide to start fundraisers to get a tattoo, or even worse, remove their regretted tattoo. One time, I even started a GoFundMe to raise money to buy a new laptop, then it hit me: get a job.

Before deciding that you’re backpacking through Europe, apply to a few hundred jobs. Some of us out here grew up not getting everything handed to us on a silver platter, so perhaps it’s time that you gear your 20-year-old self on the right track, get a job, and THEN go to Europe.

If you’re going to Europe to study abroad, then maybe you can start a little GoFundMe, and send it your family members. We all have some, or at least someone to fund us a little something. So ask them, not your 1,200 Facebook friends, who you probably don’t even know.

P.s. I will be starting a GoFundMe dedicated to my discrepancy of the matter. Please donate. https://www.gofundme.com/raising-money-for-me