Growing up we were never well off, bills got skipped and rent was late often. Experienced snowstorms without power, went weeks eating ramen, the usual struggles. When me and my brothers were around 18 we all fled from home, and so did my parents, assuming we could do better. I made mistakes at first that costed me my focus, lucky enough to have my first car to go work at a chicken spot while trying to finish high school, until a bad accident totaled the car and I needed to drop out in order to look for a full time job to survive. I had no where to fall back on. My mistakes lead to legal obligations which I strained and stretched myself thin to manage, and after a year of believing it was finally going to work out I lost my full time job and struggled to find another for over a month, leading to late payments on my second car, skipped rent, and cancelled bills. I tried to survive on my own in today’s world, and in the end survived on canned soup in the dark until I could gather enough to help my mom rent a truck for my things and move across america to stay with the parents again. My resume is sales oriented and makes job searching feel limited, I’m scared to dedicate time to any trade as an employee that might not make enough to live anyways, and im scared of wasting time, i want to find a purpose and I thought sales was it. All I want is a reason to fight and a reason to be motivated, a skill thats mine. I want to be dependable and reliable, im tired of juggling life while barely affording to feed myself. I cant find my purpose if I pick up some part time job to help my parents, while dealing with my own responsibilities. My mom is currently the only one working right now since my father had a stroke and I excuse my lack of motivation by saying my focus is on taking care of my father, but I know he’s tough and I could help much more with something of my own to build. I just need something to stand on since the middle class is just about deceased, this fence is built tall in 2026 and just “sweat and grit” doesn’t cut it anymore. I’m scared i’ll never own a house, or even a car ever again. Theres not many job opportunities for me without reliable transportation, i feel stuck. Most folks eventually have if figured out later on and even if im young and its common to not even have the mold for the cast yet, but being stuck like this clouds my foresight and almost depletes my potential. I have never asked for money from my family without mentioning the word “borrow” because I’ve always intended to pay them back, and it hurts to ask since we’re in the same boat anyways. If you donate, thank you for providing a stool for me to stand on so i may see the opportunities, if you’ve read this far, thank you for that as well.