u/bitemyshinymetal4ss

After COVID, my mom removed my sibling and I from public school. I was already educationally neglected, having been homeless (and bullied) previously and missing grade 7 and 9. Long story short, I attended 13 different schools between grades 1 and 10.

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The issue was not schooling, but my mothers lack of participation in my learning. Buying countless piles of educational booklets from Amazon seemed to be the maximum amount of effort she was willing to put in.

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I got into grade 10 after my mom begged the school to allow me to continue, only for COVID to happen 7 months later.

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My mom is a heavy conspiracy theorist, so she did not want us to be vaccinated. Out of that fear, she never allowed us to return to school. I was in grade 11 with zero direction or teaching and had to do it all myself. By some miracle I did and graduated with Honors in December of 2022. Now I am in my 4th year of university. I don't know how I pulled through and did it, but I did. I was never helped, I never spoke to anyone, never made any friends, yet here I am.

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I was exhausted from the constant moving and unstable environment. As you can imagine, there were many other things going on at the time. Alcoholism, no clean dishes, microwave meals, no heat, mattress on the floor, three of us living in one room.

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I cold called universities and spoke to advisors for hours despite having zero social skills or understanding of what applying to university meant. I asked my mom to help pay for ONE university application in early 2023 and she refused, so I got a job. This is where my life completely changed. There are still obvious hiccups because of my schooling math-wise, other than that, I am merely just trying to make something of myself.

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My biggest piece of advice is to write. Journal, write, tell a story, dream, think of the future and do not let go of your dreams. I never would have made it had I not been dreaming and fantasizing. Writing is what got me ahead in life, and accepting advice from others online who were in similar situations. Write until your fingers hurt. Tell stories until you dream of them. Never give up hope and never stop dreaming.

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This is my progress, and I hope my siblings will be similar. I hope this gives hope to anyone facing/who has faced a similar situation.