Hi world,
First of all, I want to thank you for coming to this website and reading about the hardships faced by all of these people and me. May God bless your kindness. Even with just a click on the URL link, you are already a reason why this world is getting better.
I am a queer multimedia artist, a person of color in my late 20s. My journey over the past decade has been one of constant movement, relocating from city to city almost every year, each time on my own. This nomadic lifestyle, while enriching in many ways, has also been laden with its own set of challenges and hardships. I can’t remember how many times I almost lost the right to live somewhere due to the complex and frequently changing factors of visas or leases.
As I share my story with you, I hope to connect on a level that goes beyond just words and images, to a place of mutual understanding and empathy:
- Five years ago, my parents emptied every penny of their life savings which gathered over a decade to pay my tuition fees. Yet, even this wasn’t enough, so they had to seek additional loans from banks and almost cut off all their entertainment costs.
- Three and a half years ago, I graduated right when the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown began. This unfortunate timing meant that my parents and my then-girlfriend missed their chance to obtain visitor visas to celebrate my graduation with me. Since that day, I have not had the opportunity to reunite with my family. To add to the hardship, two job offers I had secured were withdrawn as the companies struggled with the shift to remote work.
- Three years ago, when I finally found a paid job and wrapped up my first day, feeling a glimmer of hope, it was abruptly overshadowed by a cold breakup text message. The uncertainty of the pandemic’s end and the strain of long-distance were too much, leaving me to face these challenges alone.
- Two and a half years ago, all my savings went to a coast-to-coast job relocation. I had to work in person in an area where I knew no one, where there were hardly any communities of my race, and where the risk of Covid was alarmingly high. However, just two months later, the Monday right after I had driven back from a business trip to another state, I was laid off without any financial assistance. I wasn’t even able to fix a cracked tooth which will be mentioned in the following part of my story again.
- Two years ago, I had been unemployed for 5 months without any insurance. One day when I walked across the street under the green light, a car hit me and crashed both bones of my left lower leg, and then left me lying in the middle of a crossroad. After I was rushed to the emergency room, I wrote a few professional emails to the companies to which I was applying, requesting a delay in the interview process.That night, after waking up from surgery, I discovered two voice messages on my phone. One was from my mother, urging me to ask the nurses for a cheaper room because we couldn’t afford the good ones. The other message was from the management office of my apartment, informing me that while I was in surgery, a neighbor’s discarded cigarette had ignited items on my balcony. This fire had cracked all the glass windows between my balcony and living room. Even the police were incredulous that they had to deal with two separate incidents involving me on the same day.
Five days after my hospital discharge, I returned to my apartment, just as a heavy snowfall began blanketing the northern city. Cold winds whistled through the shattered windows, causing my electricity bill to skyrocket. I learned to stand in the tiny bathroom with the walker to shower in front of the bathtub. I learned to crawl to the wall, use it to stand back up, and then clean up the mess of soup spilled all over me. I learned to use my body to push through doors that lacked accessibility features. It was so distressing that even an elderly lady who also visited the clinic, couldn’t bear to watch and offered to help. Additionally, I had to start my car in the cold underground garage and wait there to let it run for a while, to prevent engine damage from not being used for months during the winter.
- One and a half years ago, my other leg’s knee, fingers, and palm were injured and bled during a catastrophic stampede involving over ten thousand people, triggered by a mass shooting incident. I, along with tourists from several countries, hid in a residential building for hours.
- This year, despite having cleared the medical bills from the surgery and hospitalization for the car accident, which exceeded my pre-tax annual salary, I am still unable to run or walk downstairs normally. I’m stuck with enormous debt pressures from rehabilitation training, several panic attacks requiring emergency care, the additional costs brought about by my limited mobility, a second coast-to-coast job relocation, medical expenses for two young cats I adopted from near-death situations, legal fees for immigration and personal injury lawyers, and various material and promotional expenses for my philanthropic and artistic endeavors.
- The cracked tooth finally broke completely and gave me the pain that required extraction immediately. However, the dental clinic did insurance fraud and overcharged me $5000. Now I need a dental implant which they ask for another $2000.
The debt I already had: $64,100
The payments I will need to make in the next few months: $22,000, which includes
- Legal fee: $19,000
- Medical bills: $2,500
- Car repairs: $500
So in total: $86,100
What I do to give back to the world and honor your kindness for the rest of my life:
- In the Name of God, I donate items and cash as long as I’m capable to
- I make non-profit digital artwork that tells stories of people in minority communities and hardships
- I have been a volunteer mentor in the tech industry since 2019
- I have been a volunteer for over 8 certified charity organizations since 2014 in 3 countries
- I save the lives of pets in No-Kill shelters
- I pray for everyone who helped me or other folks here more than twice a day
My PayPal: paypal.me/MeowTeaMedia