Hello! My name is Preston, also know as John Doe on Reddit.

I am a young man of just about 21 years of age, and currently in a interesting spot in my life. As of right now, I am living in a storage room of a hotel where I also work. I came to the city I am staying looking for work, and I had nothing to my name basically. I had no car, no money, no connections in the city, no job in the city, and no place to stay. But I had been blessed to meet my now boss who gave me a job and place to live inside the hotel.

But you are probably wondering, how the hell did you end up here Preston? Well, lemme tell you, but be prepared, its one hell of a story...

I am the middle child of 5 children, 4 boys one girl. Growing up was a battle. My dad divorced my biological mother when I was 10 years old. But it was not exactly the separation/break up that caused trouble, it what was to happen next. To keep things short, my biological mother is a POS. Under her "care" and "supervision" I was groomed and essentially molested by a highschool boy when I was in 5th grade. He was the son of my biological mothers drug dealer from across the street. After news got out to my dad and stepmom, hell went loose. It was a wild court battle, but after years of fighting my dad got full custody of me and my siblings.

All the stress from the court battles, dealing with my moms BS, and other things I won't really mention, it really took a toll on me as a child. I started heavily under performing in school and I was getting bullied as well. After seeing my mom less and less, things got better. I stopped talking to my biological mom at 15, haven't seen her since...

I now consider my step mom to be real mother. I'm not gonna lie, she was hard on me growing up, yelled and screamed a lot, but I still love her nonetheless and shes my mom at the end of the day.

Fast forward to 16 years old. I get my first job at a grocery store. I was HYPED. Actually, too much so. The change of pace and environment really took a toll on me. I stopped sleeping and started experiencing mania. I started to have my first manic episode. I had delt with depression in the past, but mania? That was new to me. Luckily, it was not hard for my parents to tell something was up with me, and they took me to see a psych doctor. I now take medications to keep me stabilized for what is Type 1 Bipolar Disorder. Sucked to find out that I have this condition, especially because it disqualifies me from a lot of things. But at the end of the day, its just something that I have, not something that I am. I just do my best and hope for the best you know?

So lets fast forward to 18. I started to get real tired of living with my parents, well, mom really. Im going to be blunt, my mom can be real mean at times for what seems to be no reason. She will raise her voice in a instant, no hesitation, hurl names at me for God knows why. I get that people get upset at times but I don't think there is really anything to justify that. So I got tired, and I ran out of the house. I packed like 5 duffel bags of stuff and snuck out of the house. Ended up in a hotel (no not the one in I'm right now) and then I stay with an uncle of mine for a bit before my family kinda came full circle and helped me get an apartment. Long story short, things didn't work and I had to move back in with my parents. It was devasting and humiliating.

So there I was 18, then 19 years old. Right back at square one, with no progress made. So what did I do? You would not be able to guess..

I packed a single backpack.

Left the house.

Got on a Bus.

Went to MEXICO.

Yes, you read that right. I moved to an entirely new city in a new country, where I knew absolutely no one, had no house, no job, nothing, just some money. I didn't even have a passport. Not a single person checked to see if I had one in the process of the bus travel. But:

I made a life for myself there.

Got my own place.

Got a girlfriend.

Made lots of good friends, some who speak English.

Learned the language to an extent

Worked a variety of jobs.

Made lots of good memories

Did it suck at first and take a while to get where I was at ? Yup, slept on the floor of a carwash that I was working at for like two weeks. But I did come out just fine on the other side? Also yes.

I ended up coming back to the USA, got my passport, and went back to Mexico for a while longer. But eventually I began to realize, just how little money I was making. Honestly, if I was single I would not care. But I have my girl to take care of as well. So that's when I did another crazy thing.

I packed another bag.

I took a bus to a border town in the United States, and from there I just started walking. The bag was heavy, but man is my debt heavier. So I walked for miles and miles, all over the town. Thats where I found the hotel I now work and live in. I met my soon to be boss and explained to him my situation. And soon enough, he offered me both a job and a place to stay, here in the hotel.

Now me and my girl and doing long distance just for now, and ill be visiting her every 2 weeks or so. (Its not too far from the city I was staying at in Mexico) . My goal is just to put my head down, work my two jobs (I secured a second one the other day), and get my money right.

Only reason I made this go fund me was to explain some of my story and I guess offer a place for people to offer their help if that was something they wanted to do.

So yeah, that's me and my story. Much love to all my supporters out there I am getting real emotional as I write this last part haha. I love you guys for real.