candidlyautistic:

Hi friends!

My name is Samantha, and I am
asking for your help. I’m facing student loan repayments that could halt my
academic work studying the social psychology of autistic culture. If you’d like
to help or learn what it’s like to be disabled, autistic, and in college, keep
reading!

About Me

I’m an autistic woman double
majoring in psychology and sociology. Advocacy work for the autistic community
is my greatest passion. My hope is that as an autistic myself, I can introduce
the broader perspective of the autistic community into the study of autism. I
want to fill the holes left by other researchers. I want to ask the hard
questions and study overlooked topics from a sociology perspective.

But now I need our
community’s help.

Here’s what happened

Last semester my autoimmune
disease flared, my chemotherapy failed, and that left me unable to leave the
house for classes. At the worst point of the semester I could not leave my bed.
I failed every course for the semester. Not because my work was bad, not
because I couldn’t study, but because my health held me prisoner. My student
advisor is helping me retroactively medically withdraw from my classes, but
academia moves slowly when it comes to fixes and very quickly when it comes to
payment deadlines.

The school returned $1600 to
the loan company and added that sum as a $1600 debt on my student account. This
means that I cannot return to school until the debt is fully paid.

I learned about this by an
automatic email sent after the school closed for the holidays. Not exactly the
present I asked Santa for this year.

A medical withdraw fixes the
debt, but it takes months to process.

In the meantime, I have until January 14^th to pay the hold or I will not be able to attend school. I
just don’t have $1600.

And that’s why I’m reaching
out to you now.

How You Can Help

I have no idea if I can raise
this money in two weeks. I’m terrified of not being able to.

But now that we have a working treatment for my disorder, I have to try. Will you
try with me?

PayPal donations can be made
to candidlyautistic@gmail.com. At this point, donation websites will take
to long to transfer funds.

Here’s my promise to you: I
will be transparent with donations, replying in the comments of this post with
a running tally of donations. Any help is appreciated.

Sincerely and Gratefully,

Samantha