My name is Mika McCain and I am a 30 year old female living in the Midwest of the United States. Before I was a year old my mother was abducted and found dead on the side of the road 2 or 3 months later. If you Google Carrie Beth Thomas you will find a link to the newspaper report from when she first went missing. She was a Paralegal and yet to this day no one has ever been charged with her murder. I believe that this one event has had the biggest impact on my life. I want to say ruined my life but I know that isn’t true. It certainly did cast a long shadow though. When I was little I went through several foster families as well as several different members of my own family. I tried to live with my dad but at 14 I called lawyers for children and with the help of the people at that organization was placed in my aunts care. She and my uncle raised me from the time I was 14 up until we had a bad falling out when I was about 19 and I haven’t really talked to them much despite living in the same city- for over 10 years now. What I’m trying to explain I guess is that I’ve never had much help in life. I’ve always been proud of the fact that I have never asked anyone for money like you see the people holding signs on street corners are doing. I’ve never had a place of my own. When I first found myself on my own I had my car and that was the only door I had to be able to shut between me and the rest of the world that nobody could make me open if I didn’t want to. I felt like I was on top of the world with no responsibility or people to worry about making happy or have worry about me. But I was young and foolish. In 2014 I was driving without having insurance and had a tag that was at least a year out of date when I got stopped. By some miracle the highway patrol officer let me drive my car away after giving me the ticket that would eventually see me incarcerated two times for non payment of fines. Immediately after getting the ticket I set about getting my stuff together and eventually did manage to update my tag and obtain insurance on my vehicle with the help of a friend. But for some reason after doing this I failed to present paperwork proving my legality and therefore dropping both the no insurance and the tag ticket. I did get the tag ticket dropped but for whatever reason not the insurance ticket. I remember thinking it would not be a big deal. That 200 something dollar ticket turned into a 2000 something dollar ticket. Now that it’s been almost 10 years since I’ve been able to drive time has seen me be able to pay that fine down to nothing and all that is left is a $350 fine to be paid to the dmv. Which would be simple enough but because I was caught driving without insurance and that being the reason for the suspension of my d.l. the state wants me to have proof of insurance in my name with me before I can pay the dmv fine. I don’t know if you have ever found yourself needing to be insured with no vehicle and no license but it is not an easy task. Despite this I have had several jobs that enabled me to pay for insurance using again, a friend’s vehicle. Twice. But never made it to the dmv and always ran out of the money I’d worked so hard to earn before I could get a ride to pay the fine. I guess what I’m getting at is that life is hard and everyone is aware of that. But now being the adult that I am I’ve learned the hard way that sometimes its not just about getting help it’s accepting help. And so for the first time in my adult life I’m asking for help to get back on my feet, or off my feet really because it’s hard to feel confident in yourself while walking down the side of the road every day. Since not having a vehicle I go through life everyday feeling like a child that needs to be taken anywhere they may need to go. I currently am jobless and am waiting until the weather is more stable to start walking around putting in the apps at places I can get to easily because I’ve gotten to the point where I’d much rather walk just to have some independence. I’m not asking for a certain amount anything would help me. I’m a survivor and I will make things work but it would just be so nice to catch a break and a hand up would be a God sent blessing. Thank you for reading my story I hope that reading this may help someone else who needs to ask for help to decide to do so. It is a hard thing to do. I would have alot of respect for the people that do panhandle for being able to ask for help.. except that if I was standing outside I would rather be working at a real job.