Housing & Basic Needs

Hello everyone, as I'm sure you know, my name is Brandon Jimenez. I'm 22, my birthday is May 21st and I'm a senior in college at Sam Houston State University. I have 13 credit hours/ 1 semester left till I graduate with my Bachelor's in Psychology. The last 4 and a half years have been one crazy ride for me. Many times I've gone without basic needs, had little to no food and been homeless twice. I was taught from a young age to be independent, to always take care of your own problems and to never put them on others. This is both out of pride and out of compassion for those I love.  During my Associate's I worked part time and paid my degree off in cash, with no financial aid. When I transferred to Sam I applied for financial aid & even received some scholarships. Even with these scholarships, I barely had enough to keep the bills paid.  It stayed this way for about a year. A little under two years ago, in February of 2018, I was in a vehicle accident while walking home from work. I received a permanent spinal injury in my lumbar region and my right leg hamstring was torn in half. Only the later can ever be fixed, though I've never had the means. And so for the last two years these injuries have rode along with me, costing me a lot more than I thought they would. These injuries made it too difficult to attend classes and because of attendance policies, it resulted in me failing several courses. This ultimately led to the loss of my scholarships and my financial aid. The 6 months after I was homeless, until I was able to get readmitted into Sam this semester. I've fought this entire semester to try and get things to a state of normalcy. I've gone through the intake process with my school's disability program. I've met with the Dean, counselor's and financial aid office numerous times, just to get my loans reinstated. This was enough to cover my tuition and nothing more. The good in this story, is I finished out my semester with straight A's, which will put me back in good standing for my regular loans next semester. The bad is, I met with both the advisement office and financial aid office today and I can't move forward with possible emergency loans and reinstatement of grants until after the holidays. So, as of right now I have no money to my name and no way to acquire any.  So, yet again, I face eviction and homelessness. A major part of me would rather face this than to burden anyone I love. It is an assault to my charachter and pride in myself. I've never liked putting my struggles or my pain on anyone else. Yet, I know I need to set my pride aside and reach out for help. I know every single person who reads this is facing their own struggles and money is not an easy thing to come by. I know many aren't able to help with much, if it all. If you are able to spare a few dollars, it will directly go towards keeping a roof over my head and will allow me to keep pushing through this last semester of college. To everyone who reads this, thank you for your time and thank you for being in my life. To those who donate, I love you and I cannot thank you enough. Sincerely, you're helping me push towards my future and complete my dreams.