I am going to ask you without guilt or shame for help.

I spent all Spring studying tech sales.

My intention was to enter into the tech workforce, and to work hard.

I sent out 125 resumes, and did over 50 first, second, third and fourth round interviews, praxis assignments and virtual and physical onsites at over 25 companies. I generated three offers, and went with what I thought was the best offer, accepting the title of Marketing Development Representative at the company of my choice.

Then, three weeks later, on Friday afternoon prior to the Monday the job was due to start, I got the call from the Global head of the MDR program. My offer had been revoked. He said “The entire MDR Department is being let go.” I asked him to say it twice just to make sure I was hearing him correctly, and then I put down the phone, laid down my head on my friend’s breakfast table and cried for quite some time.

But, I don’t stay down for long. I fact-checked the assertion that the entire MDR department was being let go, because something didn’t seem right to me.

It turns out they all went into the office on Monday, and as far as I know, I was the only one whose offer was revoked.

Now, I don’t like being lied to.

And I don’t like the position that this put me in after turning down other offers.

We all had a rough time during Peak Pandemic, but it had been a doozy for me.

As a gay person, and as a neurodivergent person, it felt like my future was riding on this.

It felt like the Bad Times were over. I had accomplished something, and I believed that that something meant that I was not going to have to fear about providing for myself during rapidly changing, highly challenging times.

And then that was taken from me in an exclusionary and dishonest way.

I’ve been through a lot of injustices in life that have held me back sometimes despite my talents. That’s nothing new here in America. I am one of many who needs help right now.

But, because a powerful ‘unicorn’ tech company betrayed me after I put the last reserves of my personal resources and energy into what I thought was a good-faith employment contract, I find myself in a tough situation.

For starters, I have to be able to pay for July rent, as well as food, subscriptions and other expenses. I wouldn’t have been able to be on track to do that if I went back to interviewing full-time for another three-week round of interviews.

And, I guess after being abused and lied to in this fashion, my interest in going into tech sales professionally has dropped significantly.

Also, I have spoken the truth about what happened and in ways that communicate my trauma through poetry, polemics, and digital theatre of the oppressed. While this has garnered substantial attention, which proves my point, it’s probably no longer copacetic for me to enter the field of tech sales.

So, I am asking you without guilt or shame for help.

I want to create my own position for the next year of my life as a writer, peer-educator and labor activist.

I have a powerful voice that needs to be heard. I am ready to use my voice to share my art and to contribute to the discourse of our time.

I have quite a lot to give, and there is something I need back.

I am asking for $69,000, which after gofundme fees and taxes leaves me with $50,000.

With $50,000 after fees and taxes so that I can pay myself a living-wage salary for the next year, I will not only live through this experience, but I will also blossom as a writer and as a human.

Please help me do this.

I know it’s a lot, but I myself have quite a lot to offer the world if only I can get my own needs met.

And so, I am asking you without guilt or shame for help.

Now, please pass the hat for Max! ✨