Help me make it to college this Fall

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Hello! My name is Qamari (A'qili) Sterrett and as of today, I have around 20 days to find a way to pay my deposit for my freshman year of college at Asia Pacific University.

For me, at this point in my life, my greatest goal is to graduate college. For some my goal may seem meek or uninspiring, and maybe it would be for me too, if it wasn't for the woman in the thumbnail photo Sunshine Coates. That woman is my mother. She was the light of my light life when there should've have been no light at all. Me and my mother faced every struggle you can think of- from hunger all the way to homelessness. Yet everyday she did nothing but work and work and work, slaving away at jobs that would ignore her health and integrity as a person- enduring constant abuse on all front just to make away to survive.

That's what my mother always did, because that is all she could afford, survive. And yet she always found a way to make sure I ate if she didn't, that I had a warm place to lay her head despite her embarrassment of asking someone for a place to stay. There's no doubt in my mind she is the strongest women I have ever met, because the only time id see her cry at all, was when shed beg and plead to little 10 year old me "Qamari you need to go to college and get you degree, because I never want you to end up like me."

As a young child, I was forced to grow up much quicker than those around me, a normal occurrence for children who grew up in circumstances like my own. However, my mothers wish for my to go to college wasn't a request she wanted to make happen of my own volition- no. Every single day from the day I could she poured knowledge into me about every topic she could, from particle thing like the world around me, to subjects around religion and faith, and when I was older, communication and financial skills. She poured so much into me in fact, that there is rarely a topic I have no knowledge on, and if I don't, id be quick to catch on. That's because she raised me a Student of Knowledge", a philosophy that it is a moral obligation to always strive to learn more and find more in the pursuit of a fulfilled life driven by wisdom. And that holds true to this day.

Every single day I found the strength within myself to get up and learning something. Anything.

That was until August of 2022 when my mother passed away from liver complications after a 3 month battle in the hospital.

When she passed away, a part of me did too. She was my strength, and when she passed away she took that strength with her. I lived everyday wishing god would will for that day to be my last. I lost my joy, my love, my motivation- it was a fierce struggle everyday just to find it within myself to continue living.

Now, 2 years later, the wounds are still fresh. Some days feel as if just the night before I back in that sterile room again- holding her hand as it grew colder and colder in my own. As if I was right back in that cold room, watching the heart monitor struggle to keep tabs on her weakening pulse. As if I was right back in that agonizing hospital room, dropping to knees in pure despair as I look up at that grey flatline as doctors rush in to announce the time of death.

However, in these 2 years I've something new within myself. It was her wisdom. I've realized that every waking second I am living and breathing, I am the living embodiment of her love, her hard work, and her knowledge. Knowing this, I could never let myself, knowing all her hopes for die off when I am her living legacy.

I am the living of Sunshine Coates, and I am going to fulfill every wish she had for me, and wishes for herself she never had the chance to make come true. That promise to myself and her starts now. I am going to do everything I can, and hopefully with your help, to fulfill her wish and get my degree and see the world while doing it.

Thank you.

Every single donation no matter how small I'm eternally grateful- so if you do donate where your money is going and what is it covering?: All donations will go into covering my first semesters tuition, My student insurance, Room and Board, Japanese student visa application fees

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