I did not plan on coming to the dailykos community, pockets out turned and hat in hand to ask for your help. With a little planning, I thought, I could easily navigate this situation with the right resources. That was true until a couple of days ago. But when I exacerbated an existing injury while on the job a few weeks ago, I didn't really know what I was going to do. I certainly didn't think that I would be writing this diary currently, but there comes a time in every adult's life when they must look in the mirror and admit that they cannot handle some things on their own. Unfortunately, I have reached a point where I can no longer handle this situation without help.
In June, I graduated from Western Oregon University with a Bachelors degree in Sociology (I wrote about it here). A little before that, right before finals week (a week that took its toll on me, as I was taking finals for 23 credits worth of classes) my little car finally crapped out on me and my fiancee. I decided to take an emergency loan (a service my school offers just for emergencies like this) to fix our car and finish out Spring term and graduate. Luckily, our car was repaired just in time and we finished and graduated.
The loan, however, has ballooned out of control. I took out 700 dollars to fix our car. The loan's balance is now well over 1000 dollars.
This normally wouldn't be a problem. I was slowly saving up with my Wal-Mart job to pay it off this month. I nearly had all of the balance saved with my and my fiancee's job. I have been paying about 50 dollars a month to keep the dang thing current and saving the rest to pay it off in one shot. In six months, I have saved about 800 dollars.
Thing is, I recently lost that very same job at Wal-Mart, due to circumstances far out of my control (I wrote a diary about the situation a few days ago) That money now has to go to survival. Not only is my injury just a pull, my doctors now suspect a hernia, which inevitably means surgery. And also means that I can no longer work menial jobs just like the one I had at Wal-Mart. Thankfully we had that money in savings because now we can survive the month with all of our bills paid, but now I am at a loss of what to do about the loan.
It goes further than just paying off a loan though. See, I want to get my masters of education from the very same school - WOU and become a high school teacher. After a year or two of wavering back and forth from career choice to career choice, I have finally decided to put myself entirely behind teaching and get my teaching license. Its the perfect way to give back, to better myself, and to have a relatively stable job that wont fire me because I happened to get a hernia...
The deadline to apply for the program is February 15th, which means I have precious little time to save up the extra 1000 bucks to apply. If I can't get in this year I have to wait an entire year and a half to reapply for the class of 2017. I could probably just wait, get another low paying job and try to survive, but with my student loans coming due in the next two months I don't think we will be able to. We can barely pay our day to day bills, let alone student loans and what I owe to Western.
To be clear: my situation is not urgent, nor is it life threatening. If there are others in more dire situations please help them first. Don't let me get in the way of someone who is really in need. But if there is absolutely no one else, I am asking for your help. I have not had good luck in the job market since I graduated (for those who recall, before I got this job at Wal-Mart, I was laid off via text message from another job with a metroPCS authorized dealer who went under within three months of opening. Again, I diaried the whole thing. I kinda take the whole "diary" thing seriously. Sometimes I blog about my life), and I am beginning to realize that my only hope of financial stability is becoming a professional. But its not just about my financial needs, it is also about fulfilling a calling, giving back, and dedicating myself to something bigger than passing out cell phones to giant materialistic throngs on black Friday. I want to pass on my passion to the next generation of would-be sociologists and critical thinkers. And with your help, I can begin that journey.
Again, if there is some other kossack in greater need, focus on them. But if you do get the chance, some help, even just a little, would be greatly appreciated.
If you can help, I started a GoFundMe page here. If you can't, I'll also take a tip and rec or a kind word :)
Thank you again for your support.
rexymeteorite
Update: Holy crap I am floored by the outpouring of support. Wow. Seriously guys, thank you. I don't know what to say.
Update 2: GOAL REACHED. OMG I am stunned.
I am paying the school back and applying for the school of education on monday. Not in my wildest dreams did I ever think this was possible. I will be posting an update and thank you diary on monday, when the loan is paid off. All I will say right now is I am fucking floored. Still processing this.