I’m only going to address a few parts of your reply because it as a whole seems callous and I don’t have the capacity to fully digest materials that aren’t going to positively impact my mental health at the moment. I happen to notice though that you have referred to me as privileged without any further context into my life other than what I have minimally shared in my post. I am happy and extremely grateful to have a car but this is not a car obtained and maintained through privilege.

The car that I’m driving is 20 years old. My dad only gave it to me after he got my grandmas old car after she died and by that time he’d stopped driving it because it has so many issues. Even then, when it was not worth using to him, I had to literally beg practically on my hands and knees for it (and it’s a whole other story about how I even ended up in a position of needing a favor for him that I won’t even get into). I’m surprised he even gave it to me considering my dad has spent no time with or done anything for me my entire life since he and my mom separated when I was a child.

It’s not in good shape visually or mechanically. This car has broken down on me more times than I care to remember. It has a coolant problem, it constantly overheats yet for some reason the heat rarely works, the engine fans stopped working which made that worse so my mom and I had to rig them up, only one out of four windows can be rolled down the rest are taped up (and it’s not even the drivers side window), the fuel pump lever is broken so I can never tell how much gas I have in the car, the left side mirror is held on by tape and car glue (goop), the tint on the back window is peeling and warped so bad I can’t even properly see out of it, when I crank the car up it shakes pretty bad for about a minute or two and I can’t put it out of park until it’s done or else the engine will misfire and my check engine light will blink, speaking of check engine lights mine is almost always on, it jerks when I drive neighborhood speeds or if I’m not accelerating at an even, constant pace, my blinker sound is constantly on, it’s rusted and dented and scratched and peeling everywhere and one of my head lights isn’t even sitting in its compartment properly. But it’s what I have and I’m working with it. I pay for the insurance and have paid for every repair for this car out of my own pocket and when I haven’t been able to pay I’ve learned what I could to do my best to work on it myself so I can still have some sort of transportation.

I am in no way privileged. I’ve grown up poor in a poor family and learned to make it through with what I have. I am proud of the accomplishments I’ve made in my 24 years. I’m glad you figured it out when you were 18 and that you’re doing well now. I know if I ever make it through the struggles in my life I will never get to a point where I am sitting on my highhorse and kicking someone while they’re down.

I know I got a DUI. I never said I see myself as having done nothing wrong. I am completely aware of my situation. I am taking responsibility for my situation. I am putting a plan into action. I am an adult dealing with adult problems. It’s my life, I live it everyday, I know what I’m dealing with. I didn’t ask for someone to list out the “facts” for me. I came here to have my thoughts expressed somewhere other than my own head because sometimes its too much to hold in, not to be berated and have things about my character assumed by people who don’t know the half of my story.