Hello, my name is Kayla McKinney. I’m an African American female, 33yr old veteran and live here in Abilene, Texas and have lived in small towns of Texas all my life. I signed for 4yrs of service but did not make it all the way thru due to getting kicked out. When I got to the military I was fresh out of high school, small country town in Texas called Sweetwater (no the water is not sweet lol) and really never had seen or experienced anything but have always been driving to be successful. Unfortunately I got caught up with the wrong crowd and made bad choices to use spice which led to me getting kicked out of the military. It sucked but while in the military I did because a yellow shirt on the flight deck and received some honor medals from the senior chief of the ship so some leniency was shown and I received a general discharge. After getting out I tried to keep the momentum to just keep going but keep running into brick wall of not knowing what to do with my life. Music had always been some dear to me just never really had support or the funds to fully pursue. Now I’ve manage to get a little bit of apartment assistance and door dash and Uber to cover other expenses. I would really like to pursue my music career and not have to worry if I’ll be able to pay my next bill or not. I struggle with depression and self doubt but daily I work to get better at that and really just self motivate. I’ve manage to start up a tshirt business (Quotes The Lifestyle) which is a company that shines the life on African American entrepreneurs and leaders by putting there famous quotes on clothes in hopes to inspire younger entrepreneurs and leaders. The company has been at a stand still due to me not having the funds but that would be something I would dig into also if financially available. My family is around but not really a connection due to my mother not understanding my LGBT lifestyle, it saddens me but have worked to get past in over the years. Life has been hard I’m not going to lie but I keep going because I have hope and won’t allow anything to take me down. I will forever be strong. Financial help would change my life. 5,000$ would help me get started. Thank you for listening.