Help a Grad Student Out

Let me tell you a story. In high school, a few friends and I, with nerdy fixations and what I can only assume was too much time on our hands, decided that we really, really wanted to form a sketch comedy troupe. So we wrote some sketches—probably (mostly) not very good, but with some passable material, and before long we had a few of hours worth of sketches. We mostly fantasized and made a few home movies for both our own gratification and the aggrandized ambitions we held. But then….Then came the day we got a venue.

The local high school drama teacher, who had one of us in her class, agreed to let us use the school’s smaller theater for our purposes. We would get one week to rehearse and invent our own (some would say “revisionist,” other would say “not-knowing-what-the-hell-we-were-doing”) brand of theater tech, and two nights on the weekend for the show. To this day, I have no idea why she agreed to let a bunch of kids, most of whom she didn’t even know, have carte-blanche governance over her theater for a week without any kind of supervision, but I can only assume it was because all we had to do was ask.

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I thought of that earlier today as I thought about my life and what I want to do with it. I'm a late-stage PhD student, an aspiring writer and publisher, and absolute pauper. Going into my last year of grad school (the last of 12 years of schooling overall!), my wife and I find ourselves utter tapped of resources in a city that's long been far too unaffordable and is only getting worse. Working other jobs and asking family for money only could go so far, and now it's looking like it might finally all go bust. It seems unthinkable to drop out of school after coming this far, but as our once-president says, "Reality has a way of asserting itself."

But before consigning to utter defeat, I found myself thinking of this story. It seemed such a long shot in high school to actually put on a show of our own production, but then I remembered, all I had to do was ask nicely.

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At the risk of being a shill, I'm kindly asking the SteemIt community to help a brother out if it can find it in their hearts. This is the one time I'll do this (for any mods furrowing their brows right now), because it seems like a long shot, but then, it never hurts to ask.

Thanks a lot for suffering my insolence. Thanks to everyone who came this far and a million thanks to any who feel inclined to contribute to the "help me pay my rent and feed my dog fund." Your patronage is beyond appreciated and your generosity treasured.

https://www.gofundme.com/pjreilly

—PJ