When all the spinning plates crash and shatter

Hi all, this is Leila. My story is a bit of a complicated tale.

I need to preface my story with how hard it has been to ask for help. I was raised to do my best to provide for myself until the Universe decided to kick me in the teeth (or that's how it felt).

At the end of 2019, I had a seizure that put me in the hospital for seven days with no memory after I climbed into my mother's car for a ride to the ER. The first four days are a blank spot. Until the nurses came into my room, flipping on the overhead light at 2am. My salty demand they turn off the light was the first response they'd seen. Then I was surrounded by medical staff, all asking me questions that left my head spinning.

The seizure left me with serious cognitive deficits.

I liken my situation to the circus act of all the plates spinning on thin dowls. Honestly, I was getting pretty good at keeping up with bills until I couldn't.

Fast forward to today, and all my spinning plates started crashing down. I'd lost my ability to sequence (commonly known as multitasking) made life challenging. I tried to return to work, managing clients, their travel, or card administration. When I thought I could go back to work, it failed miserably. Yeppers, fun times.

I ended up applying for a MFA program, my doctors supported this path. School kept my brain busy and remapped my neural pathways.

I like to say I found all my high-score Scrabble words and lost the simple ones. I'm grateful for my graduate classes.

Just keeping those plates spinning was a full-time endeavor. I thought I had everything under control until my car was repossessed. I never got the letter from the bank talking about the repossession.

My application for Social Security Disability has been a long hard slog. I've been able to receive county benefits for healthcare and food.

I'm here to ask for help torward my bills and hopefully get my car back.

My 'thankyou' will be limited photography prints (see header). Feel free to look at my Instagram account (leilagaskin). The photos will be in the form of notecards or photographs that can be framed in 8x10 frames. Photos can only be shipped to the domestic US.

$0-$10 My profound thanks for your support and kindness.

$10+ would be a set of notecards that feature photos of my butterfly and dragonfly.

$20+ 8"x10" prints of any of the photos in the header.

Your kindness is appreciated; I'll do my best to pay the kindness forward.

This world we live in is filled with contradictory ideas, but I believe kindness is a currency that makes the world a better place.