Hey...First post, and I wish it was on better terms.
For some backstory:
I am a 22 year old women living in Texas, but sadly, due to my financial situation, I live with my parents. Due to personal reasons, I wound up only taking 1 year of college, but I'm stillpaying it off. Since my major was in the arts, it was mandatory for me to purchase an apple laptop rather then the cheaper del laptop other students were able to get, from the university. Being a poor 18 year old at the time, who put every cent I had saved into attending the college already, the laptop was paid for by my parents, but under my name. It was completely paid for, so even after that year, it remained my property, but since I came back home, things have...been tense. I'm the resident disappointment, I suppose...and while I've had jobs, it seems most available jobs in the area I was living are entry level, and I couldn't make living wages...but I still worked on art on the side, bought myself a tablet, and taught myself how to make digital art. Over a year ago, I got a decently big break, and was actually doing really well with my art, which was great because the little photo studio I was working on, suddenly got closed down. No warning, just a call from my crying manager not to go in for work the next day, and why. As wonderful as that was, however, the little peak eventually went back down again.
Now mind you; the whole time this was going on, my art was doing well because of comic books, and I actually made some friends in the Indie Comic industry who were helping me market myself, and helping me improve. I met them, talked to them, marketed, found jobs and received commissions, an did my art all on my laptop, so I was on it CONSTANTLY. Still, even before then, when I came home tired from work, as all the friends I had had in town had moved away for jobs, joined the army, or went to other states for schooling, and my lovely coworkers... didn't really share my interests... I did, admittedly, spend a decent chunk of time on my laptop as well. I'm an extrovert, so I need people t get energy, but I also have social anxiety, so putting myself out there is terrifying, so I got my social energy recharge often speaking to friends online. That being said; from the moment I came home from that one year of college at age 19, my laptop somehow wound up a a leash my parents like to lead me around with.
Even during times were my laptop and making digital art on it were my only source of income, I've had it taken from me, and hidden around the house.
You were working on getting a commission done by the due date so it can go through the editors, letterers and printers in time to be put in the comic, so you didn't jump up and clean everyone's dishes, everyone's laundry, or clean the house while we were at work...? Lol, your laptop's gone for a week. Oh...you don't have any other means of communicating with your commissioner because the windows phone we gave you sucks, so you can't even warn them your work may be late? Well, tough luck.
I got decent at finding it, but sometimes, things have escalated. My father in particular has threatened to Destroy my laptop in various ways. Telling me how he wants to smash it against a wall, run it over, take a bat to it, etc. Well...my parents moved recently, so I moved with them about months ago. I haven't been able to find a job as of yet, so I've been working on my resume (I haven't updated it since 2017, and the phone I had since college, fell of the windowsill where I'd put it, and was DESTROYED, so I recently got a new one...an Android for the first time ever...THIS PHONE WORKS SO WELL Y'ALL HAVE NO IDEA... in anycase though...I lost all my old numbers and contact info, so I'm having to email and send out messages on Facebook to get what I need to update my Resume.) My other possible sources of money would be digital art, an making nail polish, but my art program was bought via steam on my dad's account, since I don't have one. He reimbursed me for the purchase, but in order to open my art program, it wants his steam password, so I can't even do art commissions without permission, and I get scolded and berated when I try to make nailpolish so I can at LEAST have a few bucks to my name. In otherwords; I don't have money to give my parents, and have been on my laptop, between playing D&D with and keeping track of my friends where we used to live, as I've yet to make any new friends here as of yet, or just trying to work on my resume, find doctors, dentists, and therapists for myself etc. So, well, the threats go on.
My parents have always been helicopter parents, and since I got diagnosed with ADHD halfway through the last semester of my one year at college, they've been using it as an excuse. If they make me cry, I'm letting my ADHD emotions get the best of me. Also my decisions are all bad ones because my brain doesn't work right, so I should just listen to them, because they'll make the right decisions for me. Mostly mom, but sometimes dad, open and read my mail. Mom even takes my packages and hides them to "punish" me for spending my hard-earned money (Usually this has been on presents for others, supplies I need, or, since they want me to DM and start a D&D group in the small town we move to, supplies for that). I love them...but honestly, since coming home from college, things have only gone from bad to worse. I'm getting sick of the threats, of them going through my mail, and taking my things... "punishing" me when I am a 22 year old women... I understand that the phone bill for my phone is in there name, (cheaper that way), so they can legally take my phone whenever, but my laptop is MINE, right...?
I remember reading somewhere that taking away something that was given as a gift is infact thievery...but if I try to press charges, they may not only kick me out, but claim all my stuff and furniture, clothes, and personal effects as their's. There'a great deal that I've bought, of that I've reimbursed them for purchasing, but I do have a few things I've had since highschool that were gifts. My mom has taken and given away, or even sold/tried to sell my things before without my permission, so I don't put it past her. She says, much like she does with my laptop, that since she paid for it, and it's in her house, it's her's...but that doesn't sound right to me.
I don't want to tear apart my family, or ruin their lives, nothing of the sort...I just want the information and sources I need to at least be able to defend my things without winding up out on the street with nothing.
Now, it's 5 am and I'm tired, and I may have to rewrite/edit some things in the morning...but I figured this was worth a try.
Edit: I accidentally up-voted my post, and don't know how to make that go away without down-voting it. Sorry if that causes any confusion.
Submitted August 03, 2019 at 01:20PM by ThatDnDGal https://ift.tt/2LXTGcH
No comments:
Post a Comment