Oisín goes to school

If you know me, you've probably heard me talk about how I didn't make it to university after high school due to a combination of poor mental health in my late teens, and a pretty rocky coming out. Well, the time has come for me to get back to it! Read below for a wee bit more info about what I'm going to study, why I want to study it, and why I need your help to make it happen.

 

At the start of the pandemic, like many people, I decided to sign up for a college course to pass the time and I was gutted to find out that, due to circumstances beyond my control, I'm ineligible for OSAP - which, for the Scots, is the funding body in Ontario that gives out student loans and bursaries and all that good stuff that makes going to school possible. For the second time in my life, I was forced to give up on my hopes of further education. I'm not gonna lie to you lads, it really picked the scab off an old wound and left me feeling pretty depressed and defeated and, ultimately, at a bit of a dead-end with the whole school thing in general.

 

Fast forward to now - in the last few months Marie and I have been having a bit of a tough time with our landlord (not the point in the story, it's all gonna be fine). But the drama has led me to get involved with many tenant rights activists and housing equality advocates around Ontario. I cannot express how much it has restored my self-esteem to be researching and advocating for myself and others in this space. It feels serendipitous to have found an area of advocacy that I'm so passionate about all because I, like many renters, had a run-in with a bad landlord. However, as engaging as it all is, I could be of much more use to this community and to many more vulnerable working class renters in Ontario if I were a qualified paralegal.

 

So! I applied for a paralegal course and I was accepted - sick! But I'm still ineligible for OSAP - bummer! Hence the crowdfunding.

 

If you've got any pennies to throw my way, I'd really appreciate it. I know money is tight for us all right now, but I promise it'll be money well spent and an investment not just in my future, but in my ability to help many more in navigating the systems of oppression that work to thumb down numerous marginalized working class people within my community.

 

Thanks for reading this far (and even if you can't donate please consider sharing this with your network),

Big love,

Oisín