Project Kumquat-Help Em live w Ehlers Danlos

Hello! My name is Em. I’m a 31 year old non-binary person living with a connective tissue disorder called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. I became unable to work in September of 2022, and was denied disability in February of 2023. With a lengthy appeal process ahead of me, and 31 of 52 and counting drs appointments completed so far this year, I need help.

Why a kumquat?

I know we’ve been appropriating spirit animals left and right, but this one is my spirit fruit. Kumquats are the hardiest of all citrus, tolerating both high and low temperatures- a quality I’d love to emulate. They’re also a little controversial, in the citrus world, evading a common classification, yet hold the title of original ancestor of all citrus plants, echoing how I feel new, yet ancient. Kumquats are very small, bittersweet, and pack a dense nutritional punch. Ima shorty, definitely a Sagittarius, and I'm always eating. Or trying to, at least.

Help me live as cool as a kumquat.

Funds will be used for:

Lyrics to above video:

I Need Help

by Em Riddle 2023

I thought that I could say it

In a few words, have it laid out

So you’d know exactly

What it is I do

But if I spelled it out for you

We’d be here for a day or two

So maybe I can sum up in a song?

I have a huge family

And everyone’s involved

Eyeball deep in Christianese

A massive fabricated wall

They have little room for gayness

They have zero room for me

So now I’m unattached,

Alone out here,

Falling wild and free

I need some help

I need money for my meds

I need some help

My cars about to be repossessed

I need some help

I’m out here doing my very best

And still I’m guessing every day

How I’ll survive

My body has difficulty

With eating, breathing, and moving free

And the doctor shrugs his shoulders in my face

I love to work but I had to stop

My fingers bend from side to side

But the man says I can find a job to do

I fall asleep just sitting up

My gripper has me dropping stuff

And I don’t usually know what you just said

And on that note, what I said too

Cause half the time when I get through

A sentence I don’t recall how it starts