Their Friendship Means The World To Me Btw . If You Even Care

CW: Death, Suicide, Illness

Hey Guys,

I don't usually like to post a lot of personal stuff on this blog and barring a mention last year that I was laid off due to Covid, a lot has happened since. I got into a collision where a pick-up truck ran a red light and hit me permanently damaging my lumbar which has changed the future for me skill-wise and of course work-wise. I will eventually be able to return to my original job when the government allows my workplace to open again because they permit inter-departmental training so my hope is that I can do modified work while training to do a job that doesn't require me to haul heavy iron carts full of slot machine casettes to and from the back rooms. So I'm still laid off as of now, going to physiotherapy and hoping for the best.

Meanwhile these are two of many of my favourite pictures of my mom. Both she and my stepdad are and were survivors of the residential school program in Canada where the government was single-handedly responsible for generations of abuse both physical and psychological of hundreds of thousands of First Nations children, many of whom did not live to see present day. My mom has told me a lot of horror stories about her childhood in that program and the ways she had to protect herself to make it until she was let go to the years afterward as she watched many of her friends and peers die from addiction and/or suicide. With my stepdad, who she met at the school, she had found happiness and understanding. They would eventually start a small at-home pizza business on the reservation which was her main source of income for going on to three years now.

Last year in November she found my stepdad lying on their kitchen floor. He had passed away from a heart attack and only a few weeks after his passing she was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer.

I can't describe to you guys what it's been like watching her try to power through the grief from losing the love of her life, and endure all the doctor's appointments, biopsies, and invasive hospital visits but what I can tell you is that my time with her will always have been not enough and it hurts me to admit publicly that while my shitty dad never did want me to get to know her, I wasted too many years of my life believing the lies he and many others spoke about her. She is hard working, she is loving; she is generous, and she would have been the person who raised me with love if it weren't for the way Canada's laws work actively against Indigenous women being able to heal or survive the cyclical trauma that comes with being in this country. So as much as I can, I want to be there for her and help her and have more time with her.

Last month she went for a mastectomy and will be starting her chemotherapy in a couple weeks and while all this is happening, she has been unable to run her pizza business and was not even able to afford a headstone for her late husband. And of course, due to the pandemic, the headstone ceremony would not have been able to take place anyway. I am currently at a loss as to how I can be there for her during this time other than a gofundme I started to help her afford to travel out of her village for regular chemo, to pay her bills while she is alone and trying to build her life back together. What I'm basically asking is that if you have the ability to help my mom during this time, please donate to her gofundme and if you're not in a position to give, that is completely okay but I want to ask you guys just one favour, that you at least reblog this post. My hope is to be able to give her the good news that she doesn't have to worry about bills and the cost of living while she is going through treatment, that she can come back to her life without feeling like she has to start from zero all over again or even pick up the shambles that losing her husband has made her life feel like.

I appreciate all of you who've helped out already over the holidays and I will never forget what a kind community this has been and what that means to me. Thank you so much.

weird unprompted opinion but i think out of all the storytelling mediums.....theatre best portrays loneliness

feel genuinely sick about these two

I got chills, I love this so much

The raven's cycling.

I... I have no explanation for this. I have a train to catch in a few hours, and that's where my mind goes apparently.

The gangsey is funny af honestly, I could to hundreds of those.

lifehack: when you see a Take One candy bowl in a restaurant, wait until noones looking and shovel candy into your pockets. god may judge you but his sins outnumber your own

Denis Istomin on Instagram

They danced merrily

Smell of trees after rain

I just. I don’t like this view of “millennials vs Gen Z”. This is NOT supposed to be a competition of who got fucked over the most and who’s “actually fighting back”.

Millennials are fighting back just by surviving in a job market where the minimum wage doesn’t cover the living cost. Millennials are awesome at “killing” the diamond, golfing and napkins industries. Millennials are using the internet to make sure things that corporations want to keep in the dark are exposed. They’re open LGBTQIA-friendly business, they’re supporting each other with online donations so everyone can survive this shitty economy.

And the Gen Z kids? The Gen Z kids are rad. I remember a post about something like the millennials making a collective promise to never become a disenchanted generation that only criticizes the next one and I want to point out that this “millennials vs gen z” trend is trying to do exactly that: split us apart. Prevent millennials from being the older siblings that teach the younger siblings to throw a good punch and turn them into the annoyed adult complaining about “those kids” on their lawn. We are the two groups that grew in a connected world of information. We are two very unique generations.

I think that it’s our duty for us millennials, as a disrespected, underpaid, very angry generation to stand up by our younger siblings, and fight together the oppressive systems that brought us all to this point.