Transmission incoming: “This is the Kobayashi Maru, calling Starfleet Command. Requesting immediate reprogramming. The test is unwinnable unless we change the rules.”

I’m 32, a mom of a two-year-old girl, and a biomedical engineering graduate who has spent the last two years searching for work that disappeared when Wall Street rippled layoffs through my industry. I drained my savings, maxed my credit, and lived in a one-bedroom lease trying to hold it together. Now my daughter and I are staying with my parents, and I’m trying to chart a new course.

The Situation:

• My daughter deserves the attention and stability that only I can give right now.

• Her father is 1,000 miles away.

• Her grandma raised ten kids and still micromanages half of them.

• A lot of my family exists on the autism spectrum but I received clinical diagnosis while employed and insured in 2022.

• I’m educated, determined, and working up to self-employment and freelance paths — but too many options keep me in systems of manufactured scarcity and exploitation.

I don’t want to:

• Sell junk that ends up in landfills.

• Farm people’s data.

• Push ads and sponsorships that drive hyper-consumerism.

• Price people out of access to real skills or knowledge that could transform their lives.

I want to give freely and try to live on the generosity of those who believe in rewriting the system, not exploiting it.

The Ask:

If you can, help me reprogram this Kobayashi Maru. Donations will support:

• Stability for my daughter (basic expenses like car payments, childcare, and daily needs).

• Breathing room for me to build sustainable, ethical self-employment that doesn’t exploit people or planet.

• A chance to prove that mutual aid and generosity can carry us further than competition and scarcity.

Closing:

Captain Kirk said he didn’t believe in no-win scenarios. I don’t either. I’m asking for help to change the test — not just for me, but for my daughter’s future.

Thank you for being part of my Starfleet.

bonus video: Edith on her uncles’ trampoline