Siva Brathapan

Hi everyone, my name is Siva Brathapan. I first became aware of my family's financial struggles at 10 years old. As I grew aware, I tried to make my own terms with it, but I always did something. So, I created a YouTube Channel, with the goal of attempting to make money from it and give it all to my parents. I then began building computers for my friends and locally when I was 13, all to make money for myself to make sure my parents did not have to worry about me financially. Once I turned 15, I immediately got a job and didn't stop working to help out my parents until I was 18, and it was time for me to move out to college. My parents are the hardest-working people I will ever have the blessing to know. My father, 61, grew up on his own as his father passed away when he was 13, and his mother passed away when he was 18. He came to America from Sri Lanka, put himself through school at San Jose State University, and graduated with a Business degree. My mother immigrated from the Philippines to America and met my father at University, though my mother had to drop out due to financial circumstances. My father and mother created a business that they still run to this day, yet they started it from nothing. Ever since they opened that business, my dad has told me that he has not had a day off. This business essentially made my dad into an electrical engineer without even realizing it. But work became their lifestyle. My mother works sleepless nights, almost every day--she would go to sleep at times like 3-5AM from doing digital work for customers at home, just to wake up at 8AM and go to work with my father. My father would do all the strenuous physical work that eventually took a toll on his body. My mother's right hand had a generator fall on it, which gave her permanent nerve damage. My father was the one to lift that generator off of her hand. 1 year ago, my father collapsed onto the floor, as I was dressed in my prom suit, ready to leave, my mother and I heard a thud upstairs. We ran to the bathroom, where we found my father collapsed. After I resolved the situation and helped my father regain consciousness, my mother and brother took him to the hospital, and they told me to go to prom. Over the course of a week, with my IB exams during the day and being with my father in the hospital at night, my family's sanctity was dwindling. A week and 9 heart stents later, my father was diagnosed with coronary artery disease and diabetes. He was given 5 years left to live. The news shocked my soul. My parents sacrificed their dreams, their social lives, their personal lives, and their physical life just for me to have a future. And now, we're facing the reality of me not even being able to carry on their legacy, all because of our financial instability. My mother is working so hard to figure out how to create an income that would allow my father to stop working and enjoy the time left to live, yet still allow me to go to school, because she knows my dad will not stop working until I graduate. My father is killing himself for my future, but I need him to be able to see me at that graduation in 2029. So please, help me save my family.