Henry's Second Chance

Hello,

My name is Henry Walsh and I am 34 years old. I have always sought out ways to help people and I am a passionate individual. I am sometimes too excitable and too willing to sign on to a good cause though.

I am also in trouble.

I am a Game Designer, making games, making people happy in general, is all I ever wanted to do with my life. I was determined to make something of myself and so I put myself through college. My family was always lower income, my father was a disabled American Veteran.

Believing what I was told about college I did take student loans out. I was told, "Don't worry!" By the college I attended, "You'll make around $60,000 a year! You'll be fine!"

I was a fool to believe them.
I was younger then, and I admit that I was foolish.

Those "$60,000 a year" jobs simply didn't manifest... Then I got very sick. I was forced to move home several years ago, and took a job as an adjunct Professor. I taught joint enrollement classes which allowed high school students, who otherwise wouldn't have been able to go to college, to get college credits.

The job didn't pay well, but I was still doing what I loved and I was helping people. I was only making around $10,000 per year, though I live in South Georgia so it wasn't so bad, I was forced to declare bankruptcy due to the student loans though, who were demanding $800 per month which I couldn't pay.

In 2012 I was offered the opportunity to work for a fabrication company nearby as the Lead Designer for a project to support the Olympics and Special Olympics. The BP ignition program.

Like teaching, it didn't pay well, but I was doing what I loved and I was helping people.

I worked that job in addition to my work as an adjunct. For the first time in my life I was starting to, between both jobs, make a little savings. Though it was ony a six month limited term contract, and I go to say that I worked with the US Olympics, and hey, that has a value beyond money.

Then something bad happened. The school closed the program I taught down and I lost my job.

My father is 76 years old, and I didn't want to leave him. So, since I couldn't leave my town, I worked where I could. Tutoring, scraping, draining the funds I had previously saved up.

By 2014 though I was getting desperate. Work as a freelancer was doing bad, but then a golden opportunity presented itself. I had the chance to be a lead designer for an anti-bullying video game named SumoBoy, I was leading an international team of some of the brightest and best...

You can still find the launch trailer on YouTube.

Again, the pay wasn't good, as it was a small firm, but I was making around $1,300 a month with bonuses to come after launch and anti-bulling is a good cause, my one true weakness. It looked like everything was going to end well and that there would be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for that one... I was finally going to succeed.

Fate had other plans.

Due to circumstances far beyond anyone's control the project was halted. The job was there one minute, and then, without warning, it was gone. My life was in a shambles. $1,300 for me is enough to live on, but it wasn't enough to have much of a savings account.

I turned to a job at a local vineyard, making $8.00 per hour doing manual labor. It was all I could get. I was told time and again... You are overqualified... At any job I went to locally.

I got horribly sick after several days working there.

I went to a doctor and was told that my liver was not working properly. I was told I had an iron deficiency and it was impacting everything from my memory to my body's ability to recover. I was told I wasn't fit to stay on at the vineyard, and I wasn't able to qualify for medicaid in the state, nor unemployment, nor disability.

My bankruptcy payments had fallen behind, I was out of work, then I got the shocker. I was told that I had to have a cancer screening. That it was suspected that it was the cause of my liver's behavior.

I am a fighter though. Despite making probably not the best decisions. I tried to work a project on my own, but it was simply too much and it fell apart.

Fortunately they were able to bolster my iron and as such the memory issues faded and I am in control of my mental facilities fully once more.

In September I tried to start a small computer and console repair shop. It isn't what I love, but it is close enough. I figured I could handle it and I can... Unfortunately it hasn't done well business-wise and hasn't turned a profit since I started.

Next month I lose that too.

Hope is not lost though! I'm a Walsh and I don't give up. I'm working with a few people now to put together a tiny project to release some small app games and what not. Nothing too major, but enough that I can start getting a regular income again.

The problem is that I need to be able to last long enough to see those be released. My bankruptcy is behind and I have until next month (the 23rd of May) to be able to tell the courts that I can cover the past due amount. I need to keep my internet active. I need to have money to eat and keep my basic needs up.

I didn't want to do a GoFund me because I don't like borrowing, or really asking for, money, but my friends have convinced me that I should try.

I like to make my own way. I need a blanket to recover though. I've lost my vehicle, and pretty much everything I own save for this computer that I am writing this on. I'm not asking for a million dollars, just enough to get me through until I can get something released and start being self-sufficient again.

So here I am. I am asking for people to give me a second chance. I've always worked. I've always been honest. I don't cheat, I don't bend the rules, I don't break the law. I've always made my own way as best I could and helped people along the way with every step.

This time though I can't do it on my own. I have nobody else to turn to and I don't have anything else to lose. So I'm asking you guys for help. Can you guys pitch in enough to help me get out of this mess and hopefully get my life back on track.

Thank you for your time.