User Profile

I am a 19-year-old girl just finishing my freshman year of college. I am creative, enthusiastic, hard-working, determined, both shy and friendly, neat, gentle, quiet, sensitive, strong, hopeful, dedicated, loyal, passionate, and curious, and I have a speech defect.

My whole life I have been unable to pronounce the /r/ sound correctly. For most of my childhood, it hasn't been an issue, but throughout high school and college it has become a significant handicap. It has reached the point where I am often severely depressed as a result of my speech defect--it is like a bubble surrounding me and isolating me from other people. Perhaps this seems melodramatic, but unless you have had something like this--any kind of physical defect that makes people uncomfortable--you can't know how painful and discouraging it is. I would certainly say that my disability has taken a huge toll on my mental and emotional health and my social life. I am worried I won't be able to get a good job to pay off my student loan debt, because employers will be put off by my speech impairment. Every single day, I have to at least once with people ignoring me when I talk, not understanding what I say, or drawing back from me in disgust, like I smell bad.

Sadly, health insurance will not cover speech therapy for me, even though I need it so bad--so as a last result, I am turning to the kindness of strangers. I am going to try to raise $1,000, which is how much I need to have a 45-minute speech therapy session every week this summer (it is $85 per session). It's a lot of money, I know, and there isn't any way for anyone to know if I am telling the truth, or if any of this is legitimate...I am just going to hope that some people out there have faith and trust me and can reach out and donate anything, any amount. And incredibly enough, I have already raised $520, although it isn't showing up on the meter on my website. Now, all I need is for 48 people to donate $10 each! Will you be one?

I cannot express how much it would mean to me. My family doesn't have much money, and I need help very badly. Please consider donating to help me pay for speech therapy.

Please visit my fund-raising web page (listed above), where you can donate securely. Any amount at all would help. Thank you so much.

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