Hi, I'm Jasmine.

I'll be honest with you in a way I haven't been able to be with many people: this has stopped being about a setback. This is about survival. And for the first time in my life, I am struggling to see a way forward at all.

How I got here:

When I was laid off in July 2024, I spent nearly a full year fighting my way back. I found a new role in June 2025 and told myself the worst was over. It wasn't.

I work in public health, specifically sexual health — a field this administration has targeted and gutted. The job I'd just started existed inside a constant legal and political war. Injunctions. Court challenges. The threat of shutdown hanging over everything. Living under that uncertainty every day broke something in me. By March 2025, I was out again. One of hundreds of thousands of Black women systematically pushed out of their careers — not laid off, pushed out — by policies designed to dismantle the work we do.

What survival looks like right now:

I have a chronic condition that requires infusion treatments every six months. My next treatment is already overdue. I was in the middle of rescheduling when I lost my insurance. I still haven't been able to get it. Every week without that treatment is a week my health deteriorates. This is not abstract — this is my body, and right now I cannot afford to take care of it and the stress only impacts that more.

At the same time, I am trying to keep a roof over my head, keep the lights on, and keep moving — even on the days when I genuinely don't know what I'm moving toward.

Why I'm leaving

For a long time, I couldn't see possibility at all. I still can't see much of it. But I have made a painful decision to stop waiting for this country to make space for me again and to look for that space somewhere else.

I am not leaving by choice. I am leaving because staying has become unsustainable — for my career, for my health, for my ability to imagine a future. I am searching for work internationally, somewhere my skills are still valued and my body can actually be cared for. That path forward has real costs I cannot cover alone.

My overall goal is 25-35k:

Your support would help cover:

I have spent the last year refusing to give up. I am still refusing — even when I can't see what I'm holding on for yet.

If you can give, thank you from every part of me. If you can't, please share this. You may be putting this in front of the person who helps me find my way back to myself. Either way, you are helping me survive long enough to get there.