Hello, My name is Katie I am about to turn 26 years old and I live in rural America.
Despite growing up in a small town I do what I can to pull myself up and out as much as I can within my means. When I was 18 I started my lines of credit, paid off my balances each month, worked my way through college and was able to obtain my associates degree debt free!! Life was great, family was great, work was great etc. On December 30th 2017 I lost my best friend, my partner in crime, my big brother. He was 21 years old, I was 20. We were together and he was being stupid and reckless and decided he was going to try Russian roulette and lost the game. Before I could stop him all I saw was the reaction his body had when that bullet entered his brain and destroyed his brain stem upon impact. The dr’s said he likely didn’t even know what happened, and the person we knew as our beloved family member had likely died within the first 30 seconds. At the time I didn’t know that… Because he was young and strong when the bullet entered it looked like he simply fell asleep. He continued breathing and it sounded like he was snoring. I sat there for 15 minutes until EMS was able to arrive and get him on the way to the hospital where he flatlined 5 times on the way there… I kept telling myself that if anyone can get through something like this it was him. His time was not up yet… he was such an amazing person inside and out but at the end of the day it’s no match against stupidity and recklessness.
Our biological parents were never actually parents.
There were 6 kids total, but Trent & I were the only ones who shared the same mom and dad therefore ended up being raised together with our younger sister who shared a mom with us. When I was 16 our half brother died of a heroin overdose… Although we didn’t know him very well, to know we had another brother out there robbed of his life because his parents treated him the same way ours treated us sucked. We had vowed to be different and get out of this mess they created…
Dad never made an effort and as much as mom tried her meth abuse would come in like a tornado and turn the family upside down every time she went into one of her ups and downs. I hated her for a long time because of it. I felt like she was responsible for my brother being so reckless and the reason he isn’t here today… They collectively had a hand in why my brother was the way he was but she broke his heart… time and time again.
To put it mildly I was 20 years old, suffering from a huge trauma and literally went off the deep end as far as not caring. I was depressed, struggled with PTSD due to the images of my brother dying in front of me. I started drinking, eventually lost my job, my relationship, and of course, a handle on my finances…. Everything went down the drain.
Since then I have paid off over 6k in debt from that period of my life. Several of the accounts were shut off for non payment however it was only one credit card that refused to work out payments with me and still have a bad debt from that period of my life. I believe it was called Credit One but LVNV funding took over. I had a $300 credit limit when he passed, I stopped paying my balances off and stopped making regular payments so by the time I was trying to fix it I had over $500 to pay off because of late fees. Every time I tried making a partial payment I didn’t realize they were just taking advantage of that (by extending how much longer they can continue doing this cycle) to rack this up despite telling me to pay what I can and they will work with me. Eventually it ended up in collections and just recently was sent to court. I didn’t have the money to settle so unfortunately they won the case… Now I owe $1200 plus monthly interest/fees etc.
About 4 years ago I met a guy… & he’s an amazing man who has stuck by me through my many ups and downs. Since meeting him and because of his support I finished my junior year of university and am going back to finish my senior year this winter. I have been medicated for my depression and ptsd for almost a year now and I finally am ready to start living my life for me again. We want to start a family, buy our own house etc. We are ready to move forward <3 As amazing as this is we are having a hard time getting ahead due to ME and my debts that are dragging us down as a couple.
My debt lined out via Credit Karma – student debt payments are still on hold so Its not imperative. What brought me here today was the stress of that collections.
Forever best friends!!! The picture of us older was taken on December 27th, 2017… The last photo I have with him.
My latest volunteering event through a no kill shelter Coconino Humane Association just last weekend where I spent five days help raising over $1000 in donations and helped make $2000 in sales!!! 
Somebody had painted this on our local smoke stack where us kids would hangout sometimes – the impact that he made on our community in the short time he had been here was immense. Seeing this was one of those things that is bittersweet.
All 5 of his donated organs were successfully transplanted. The oldest receiver being in his late 50’s who received his heart, and someone as young as 17 received his liver.
And finally for the not so sad part of the story, the man who stood by me despite all of my ups and downs the last few years. With love, empathy and support we can all make an impact. No matter how big or small. No matter if its one individual, or thousands we are all here together.
If you have it to spare, ANY amount of money toward paying down this debt would be life changing for me and my future. I am the kind of person who believes in paying it forward & have done so many times. I volunteer when I can, help those less fortunate when I can, and do everything in my power to not pass judgment upon those I do not know. I pride myself on the woman I have became and the woman I want to become. Because of my experiences and the person I am, I know in my heart my purpose here in this life is to leave the most positive impact that I can – by contributing to me today, it will not only be a huge sigh of relief at the end of this dark chapter, but lead me to where I am needed most in this life for the chapters I have left on this beautiful rock floating around in space. Whether you do or do not donate, I appreciate you for reading my story. Thank you.
Blessings to you & yours.
My Paypal is https://paypal.me/itsssskt?country.x=US&locale.x=en_US
Or @itsssskt