William Faust

When I was aging out of the foster care system, one of the only things I had to keep me safe was a car. I bought my first car with the money I made from my first national tour as a backup dancer, straight out of high school.

While a freshman at MTSU, at times, I was living out of my car. When I wasn't couch surfing, I was sleeping in my car.

It wasn't until I started performing consistently, and had more of a steady income, that I felt the safety of having shelter. Because of the instability of my childhood, my sense of safety came from having a car.

Even when I was out of the country performing, I always had a car waiting for me. So, that when I returned and didn't have a place to go, I would at least have my car for shelter.

Before the pandemic, I was working on a few projects that allowed me to keep working throughout the first year of lockdowns.

After my Grandmother passed in October of 2020, I couldn't hide from a lot of my childhood traumas that I had been avoiding and began going to therapy before my contract work ended.

On January 24th, 2022, as I was warming up for a show, I found out my youngest brother had been killed. I pulled through to finish the show that night. But even with therapy, I then spent the rest of the year trying to find any kind of light left in the world.

For most of my life, I had been conditioned to hold it all in and deal with things on my own. So, I wasn't able to really come back to life until I was vulnerable enough to reach out for help.

I had withdrawn so much that I became so numb to everything. And the only thing keeping me going was the discipline I had in my performance training.

I was lost for while but was making a lot of progress. Then on December 28th, the day before my birthday, I walked outside to my car stolen. The police found it a few hours later, and it was totaled.

I had completely checked out at that point. It wasn't until I was vulnerable enough to ask for help, that I started to have more hope.

Being vulnerable, publicly, is kinda hard for me and feels embarrassing. But I'm trying to not let my pride and ego keep me from any possible blessings.

I have an upcoming performance contract, where I'll need a vehicle again. I am never sure if I'll have shelter after it's done, either.

I'm wanting to replace my stolen car. I would be so grateful for any help given. For a long time, any donation would be more than what I thought the universe wanted for me. I'm still healing, but I'm learning to live again.

I'm hoping to raise enough for a down payment, but raising enough to cover the car would mean so much to me.

Thank you,

William Faust

www.instagram.com/williampfaust