Hello, my name is Raven, I enjoy expressing myself through writing and art and love spending time with my cats and my little sister. This year has been extremely difficult.
In May, I found new employment and put my two weeks notice in for a job I felt underpaid and during those two weeks my mother broke her back, completely separating two vertebrae. Before knowing this she had been laying in bed for a week before I forced her to visit the ER and in learning this, they informed us she could have been permenantly paralyzed below the break in her spine.
Subsequently, she was fed pain killers and they wanted her to make important decisions for her well being with my little sister sitting just outside in the waiting room. I informed my boss I could not come into work because they needed me and she removed me from the schedule. While I was leaving this job either way, I did not feel I could come back to the only job that I felt gave me any semblance of respect.
The new job proved to be more or less a pyramid scheme: an unpredictable schedule, daily changing commute location and unreliable hours. After this I worked at a hotel over the summer and then also a phone store simultaneously meaning I worked 11 hour days five days a week between them.
The phone store promised full time and potentially management so I left the hotel in August to focus my efforts there. The owner was more than nice at first but eventually he became hostile and sexually harassed me on a number of occasions. None of this I had physical proof of, of course. I stuck with it until he shortened my hours to three days a week and when I showed for these days the store was locked and no one was answering my calls. This happened three days in a row. I did what I thought was my only option and left.
While all this was happening my roommate and I were homeless during a lease gap and we were expected to pay full rent August 1st even though we wouldn't be in until the 20th and rent would again be due September 1st. Once I had moved into my current apartment, was when I was told my hours would be cut.
So fast forward to the end of August. I started job searching and applying to unemployment neither had been successful. I applied to over a hundred jobs but living in a college town it's very easy to be dismissed or be interviewed and never hear back.
Now it's going on three months and unemployment is unwilling to put my case through and I've been told to "just keep calling." Thankfully, at the end of October, I gained unemployment and expect my first check next week.
The downside is now I am two months behind on rent, on credit card bills (with the companies calling daily), and my apartment utilities. Today to top it off I found an eviction notice in my mailbox after pleading with them to be patient.
I have no one to ask for help, my mother is surviving on disability checks and my father has been a constant absence in my life. The only grandparent I've ever known passed away a year ago. My family has struggled all my life and my only wish is to have security as an adult on my own.
I am asking for donations to put my finances at ease enough to catch up on my rent and avoid losing my home. I fought tooth and nail to get where I am and can't bear to watch it all fall away again.
My unemployment was the root to a major phase of constant depression and losing this would feel like another debilitating failure on my part.
Every donation received would be met with immense appreciation and hope that things will really get better. Thank you.
