Help Luz Get to London

My name is Lucecita Cruz , you can call me Luz. This fundraiser is for me to live a dream of mine and study one of my passions. as a disabled, chronically ill neurodivergent Transperson, I am leaningon my community to help me make my dreams come true because I can't do it alone.

My life didn't turn out the way I thought, which is a good thing. As a lifelong addict who has had many bouts of homelessness I didn't think I'd be alive right now. I'm not looking for pity I'm just being real about the circumstances of my lived experience.

At the beginning of March I graduated with a bachelor's degree. I am the only of my 3 siblings to do so. It was a process I was determined to complete and one that I did in 2.5 years, I completed 4 years of college in half of the time. My ability to affford college was solely due to finanical aid and student loans. My income isn't much and when I say that that for transparancy sake I barely make 20k a year. During my final semester I was applying to graduate schools because I am adamant about coninuing my studies particularly in an area that I am wholeheartedly invested in. In November of 2021 I recieved an acceptance letter to the SOAS- University of London to study food anthropology, particularly foods of the african diaspora.

This has been a life long dream of mine, as someone that lives, eats ( you get it ;) ) and breathes food studying the origins of my peoples foods and how it has influenced the world is both an honor and a privilege and makes me so happy I cried.

I want to go to london, and while my tuition is covered because of student loans and I am applying for upwards of $19,000 in scholarships those are not guarantees.

I cannot afford to make it there for two reasons:

As an individual who has been chronically housing insecure for much of their life I really need to be able to have an apartment to live in while studying in London.

The average rents in london are $2000 as it is one of the most expensive cities to live in in the world, along side New York and Tokyo.

The other 15k I am trying to raise will go towards the visa application, extra diabetes supplies until I am able to find a doctor and recieve insulin, moving expenses, shipping items to the UK that I will need, airplane tickets, extra lugggage fees, a storage unit and renting a uhaul for my possesions I won't be taking with me and gofundme fees.

I understand the immense privilege that I hold just having a bachelor's degree. and I understand that there are people trying to just survive in the world and I do want to invoke abundance and denounce scarcity which was stopping me from posting one of these in the first place.

I have been relentless in my efforts to make the world a better place for queer trans people of color like myself, and now I'm asking you to make my life better.

If you can donate that would be amazing, if not just sharing would also be great. If you want to host a fundraiser for me where you are from I welcome it, anything to get me to London.

I need to raise this money by June because I need to apply for the Visa, so I only have a couple of months and it is quite a large sum so the more you can share it to your broader networks the faster it can be funded.