Help Hunter with College and Medical Expenses

Hello I’m Hunter, I’m fundraising to be able to afford college and cover temporarily increased medical costs. Below Is a detailed story of my life and the events that have led me to be in a position where I need financial help. I have tried to make this as short as possible by summarizing where I can but unavoidably It is quite lengthy. I must also warn that some of my experiences detailed in this may be unpleasant to hear but I feel it necessary to share them due to their heavy influence on my life.

I’m a 21-year-old male living in the Atlanta area although I’m originally from the Athens area I was offered a live-in job opportunity as a part-time caregiver working for a friend's family. I grew up in a separated household with my mom and younger sister our story is unfortunately fairly common, we were doing quite well before the 2008 recession, but my mother lost her job and developed some significant medical issues of her own and as a result we had to move into a section 8 apartment and rely on food stamps, child support from my father and welfare to afford everything else. I mainly relied on my mother as my father was mostly absent and has only grown more absent the older I get.

As a kid, I developed a passion for technology and history. I would often take what little money I had saved up and sneak out to go to the thrift store up the street to see if they had any new history books or cheap pieces of tech that I could fiddle with. Technology is and always has been a primary passion of mine but as a kid I was never able to afford anything remotely advanced, instead I would find broken windows XP or Windows 98 computers and attempt to repair them. As I got older my skills improved and eventually I learned how to repair laptops, desktop computers and learned how to do board level repairs that required me to learn micro-soldering capabilities. At the age of 14 I built my first computer and started to learn about software and networking systems.

At the age of 15 things at home started to worsen, my father started to completely avoid us and started to reduce his contact with my sister and me. My mother developed a condition that later required her entire uterus to be removed, drastically reducing what little extra income she was making on the side. That combined with cuts to our food stamps and worsening living conditions motivated me to drop out of high school at 16 and enter the workforce. It was depressing seeing my peers go on to receive scholarships for college and have a decent normal high school experience. While I had to work a full-time job at Bojangles so that I could have enough money to afford basic necessities and a relatively decent quality of life. This had a profound impact on my mental health, and I had to attend cognitive therapy for almost two years. I had issues with major depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts / tendencies. Sometimes I would sleep 20 hours in a row and not come out of my room for days or until my next scheduled shift. This went on for about a year until I entered the GED program at Lanier tech. It gave me motivation to Start learning again and although I would never have the same opportunities as someone with a full high school diploma in terms of scholarship availability at least I would have some sort of a diploma to assist me in the workforce.

I received my GED at the age of 17 and graduated with honors in social studies receiving one of the highest scores for that section in the state at the time and graduating with above average scores on all other segments. Right before COVID ravaged the world, I had high hopes for the future as I had just received a $500 voucher from the GED program to attend Lanier Technical College and the Pell Grant. I had been working at a place called Ryan's Buffet, a job I really enjoyed and I had just been promoted to a team lead position, so I was doing fairly well financially. My classes started mid-January and I was in the computer science program catching up on prerequisite classes for my main objective. And then COVID struck, Ryans declared bankruptcy, so I lost my job and because of a bureaucratic screw up I was never able to receive unemployment despite months of appeals and pleading with the unemployment office, I was still unable to receive unemployment because Ryan's did not file my employment status properly and because no one was at the home office due to bankruptcy, there was no way to verify my employment. Because of my dire financial situation, I decided to withdraw from Linear Tech. I had to take up odd jobs that were few and far between and sell my personal belongings and drain up my savings just to survive. It was a personal financial hit that I would never recover from.

In 2021 things started to pick up briefly, I had found a job in manufacturing and a friend of mine in the next city over offered a room and bath for me to rent which was a significant improvement over my previous living situation at my mother's apartment but soon my health problems started to impact my quality of life. I started having severe stomach issues that would cause me to check into a hospital once or twice a month Due to the level of pain I was receiving it made me think I had appendicitis. I had severe brain fog, fatigue and anxiety issues that I had never experienced before. After months of dealing with this, in mid 2021 I was finally diagnosed with Celiac disease and my health started to slowly improve. But things took a turn for the worse in late July of 2021 when I was sexually assaulted by a male at a party I was attending. My mental health took a nosedive after this and It became difficult to hold on to a job or to go throughout my day without having a panic attack. In early December of 2021 I was forced to check into a mental hospital because I had admitted to a family member that I was planning to commit suicide and that I had unsuccessfully attempted to hang myself. My experience in the mental hospital was extremely traumatic and overall did more harm than good. I would have to endure 12 days of negligence from the staff, Aggression and unwanted advances from the other patients and appalling living conditions. When I got out of the hospital I had more issues with depression, anxiety and PTSD than I had before I went into the hospital.

2022 Was slightly better, I was able to start attending Athens Technical College in January and I secured a job working for the Federal Student Work Program at the Athens Technical College Library as an IT associate, a job I thoroughly enjoyed. But In June of 2022 the individual I was renting from allowed another individual to move into the spare bedroom next to my bedroom and almost immediately after this individual moved in, he started to use hard drugs and would invite his friends over to do drugs with him where they would get into fights, destroy property and threaten anyone who told them to knock it off. This rapidly devolving living situation forced me to move back in with my mother causing me to take a significant hit financially and in my overall quality of life. All of this combined with my already fragile mental health triggered yet another downward spiral. My grades fell which caused me to lose Pell Grant funding and I was put into a position where I could either pay my bills and groceries or pay for school but not both at the same time. I would later withdraw from Athens Tech in mid-July of 2022 being unable to afford another semester. I would also lose my job at the Athens Technical College Library because being an active student was a requirement for employment. Through the remainder of 2022 and the first part of 2023 I focused more on my mental health and personal growth working in retail part time and the occasional odd job I was more focused on surviving and preserving my mental health rather than thriving financially.

In June of 2023 I received an offer from an old friend to become a part time live-in caregiver for the evenings In Decatur and things have finally started to improve. I started to work during the day for a grocery store and for the first time In my life, I was able to start paying down debt and still have enough leftover for groceries. But there have been setbacks, in november I started to have flare ups with my Celiac disease because of cross contamination at home and from the bakery at work. While I immediately took actions to rectify any cross contamination risks the effects of exposure can last up to a week or longer and range from mild to severe day-to-day. Because of my refusal to work in the bakery when asked to and due to my call-outs associated with the illness I was laid off shortly after christmas despite having provided medical documentation and following the company's policies in regards to calling out.

Thankfully I am still employed part time as a caregiver and my basic necessities are covered but I have taken significant financial hits with my medical bills and my hopes of attending college this year are under threat. This is why I am asking for financial assistance so that I won't have to yet again sacrifice furthering my education, so that I may have enough funding to not only survive but also attend college and secure a better future for myself.

I have set a goal of $1500 which would be enough to help me with my medical copays and to afford two classes at Georgia Southern University Perimeter during the summer semester. If I get accepted, I have confidence that I will be able to maintain a high GPA during summer semester and hopefully regain eligibility for the Pell Grant for winter semester. If you have read this far, Thank you for giving me your most valuable time and thank you for your consideration in donating anything helps. Everything from small donations to words of encouragement are all valuable to me. Thank You !

Detailed Below are my medical issues that are causing me financial distress along with more details on Celiac Disease

My medical bills/Issues: I have Celiac Disease which is a autoimmune condition that causes my immune system to attack itself if I eat something containing gluten ( Wheat, Barley or Rye ) I stick to a gluten free diet which is expensive in itself, But even the smallest amount of cross contamination can make me severely ill for days. Celiac disease causes a lot of other complications like malnutrition, major depression and anxiety, and extreme fatigue. I also have ADHD, asthma, and chronic migraines.

The reason why I need help with my medical bills is because I have two moles that are potentially malignant ( I have a personal and family history of skin cancer and skin issues ) and I’m on medicine for anxiety and depression, which requires a monthly appointment at my doctor for prescription refills. Thankfully I have health insurance but I can’t really afford the copays required for my visits and prescriptions plus the additional cost of visiting a specialist.