Help Ivy and Her Sister Find Peace

Hello! My name is Iliana (however I prefer the name Ivy) and I want to share a bit of my life and my sister’s with you before I explain the real deal.

Me and my sister are both full-time out of state college students, and our parents currently cover about $10,000 a semester for each of us. This is a struggle for our family financially, as we have quite a large family and it is difficult to balance financially. We do not get any financial aid, and our parents have to pay around $45,000 a year (for each of us) to make it by in our colleges.

Here is where the real problem lies. Bad news is, our family is incredibly toxic and has been to us for our entire lives. My sister struggles with severe depression, and although she is medicated, our parents have cut off all funding to our therapies as we “complain” to them too much about our father. My father is abusive physically and emotionally to me and my sister, ever since we were teenagers. Our therapists were our only outlets besides our friends (as much as I avoid telling anyone the extent of my situation), and this has made it difficult for me to see through my struggles emotionally.

My sister is everything to me. She has been my one and only from the start and has helped me through the worst and most horrific periods of my life. I don’t know who I’d be without her and God knows I surely would not feel comfortable at home if it wasn’t for her. It’s a different kind of pain when the only people that really know you are the friends you make along the course of your life. I never really got opportunities to spend time with them and hang out the way I wanted—as my parents have sheltered us beyond anything and refused to expose us to new things in life. Since, it has been a nightmare to learn independence on our own.

The good news is that me and my sister currently live in our own respective campuses when there is no breaks. My concern is that I plan to move myself and my sister out by Summer 2025 so that we don’t have to sacrifice our mental wellbeing to live in some semblance of comfort. I will be taking on more hours at my job over the summer to support us, but any supporting money at all would help incredibly. Don’t feel obligated at all to donate—if you could at least share, that would mean the world to me and my sister. The money will hopefully entirely go to rent deposits/savings for the home and necessities prior to moving out.

My parents have always perpetuated that I am the most evil, cruel, supervillain-esque child to ever reign the earth. In a much less humorous way of course. My sister and so many of you have shown me truly what it feels like to be loved, and for that I will always be grateful.

If you read this all the way, I truly appreciate you. It means a lot that you read our story and want to support us. Thank you so much for sticking around!