
Restarting life after setbacks
2024 has been anything but my year.
After being promised that my temp job's contract was being extended, I was laid off from a job I genuinely loved in April. I spent the next few months unemployed until finally landing a job at UCLA in June. I have since had severe mental health issues and now have an injured leg from this job. I was struggling with money at the old job but I was doing much better, and I had to take a pay cut at UCLA just so I could make money. And even though I chose the cheaper benefits package, it still takes a massive chunk of my pay, meaning I'm taking home just under $2,000 a month, $24k a year. Literal poverty wages. As such, I haven't been able to pay my bills. I'm currently in the process of being evicted from my apartment for the first time in my life.
Originally 1I wasn't surprised but I also wasn't concerned. I figured I could just throw my stuff in storage and sleep in my car at work. Lulu (my cat) can hang with me too cuz I could just park underground in the structures and crack the window. It stays cool down there even on the hottest days so it won't be too bad for her, maybe just a little cramped. But then one day when leaving a doctor's appointment, I hit a curb too hard with my car and broke the suspension. It's crazy, cuz I just realized I was driving my car on a busted suspension for like a week on the freeway and definitely coulda died.
So now my car is broken and has since been repossessed, I don't have insurance because of the aforementioned lack of pay, my homelessness plan is all the way out the window, and now my leg is so injured from the shin splint I got from my job I can barely walk, let alone work. And yet work I'm doing, but that's another story.
The point is my life has fallen apart. And now that the cruise my mom bought me ended up also not happening, you can almost put a bow on this seemingly infinite stream of bad luck. But there's still two weeks left in the year, so we've got time.
That being said, I am humbly asking for your help. There are several dozen people that have already been extremely generous and I appreciate you all. I'm hoping to cast a wider net and somehow reach this impossible goal I've set of $10,000.
Which brings me to what I would do with the money. Ideally, I would spend $5k-$10k on some kind of car, ideally fully paid off or with ridiculously low payments to build credit with. Wouldn't be super upset about an older hybrid if that's what they cost these days, but cheap, fuel-efficient, and good working condition are the goals. This way I can get back and forth to work and at least have a place to crash if worst comes to worst. And the rest I'll use to bribe my landlords into letting me somehow either stay in the apartment or move out without an eviction on my record. And in the incredibly unlikely event that I get anywhere close to my goal, let alone MORE, I would literally just use the extra to get myself a new place. Deposits, application fees, moving costs, etc. But again, I don't expect to be in that situation.
Moral of the story is I'm in a bad spot. With your support, I can get out of it and start over. Maybe in a new city, who knows. If you can't donate right now, I understand, it's tough for everyone. But if you could please just share this on social media with everyone you know and even those you don't, it would be incredibly helpful for me in this difficult time.
If you've read this far, thank you. And I hope the best for you.