I am writing you today because i am in desperate need of help. My name is Brad D. Gordner. I am 17 almost 18(birthday is August 4th). I was involved in a car accident on August 16th of last year. Because of the accident i have lost all of my toes and all of my pinky toe bone of my right foot. Also I was burned on 30% of my body mostly my legs. Admittedly the accident was my fault as i was speeding. I flipped my truck and hit a telephone pole and i was trapped in the truck for 45 minutes(felt like and eternity). During the time i was trapped in the truck it caught fire. I was Life Flighted to the Leheigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, PA. There burn center is one of the best in the world in my opinion. There i spent 3 and a half months of my life and 6 weeks of it in an induced coma. Thanks to one Dr. Doherty who saved my life(as they had given me 24-48 hours to live) they were able to save my right foot from total amputation. God Bless their souls.
With these severe disabilites i cannot get a job or anything because of the limited amount of time i am allowed on my feet.(the skin is paper thin and to much pressure would result in more open wounds). Even that little bit i have accomplished in walking was due to alot of hard work and tons of physical therapy. I have always been interested in the Stock Market and since i was home all year i got a chance to become very familiar with it. I have so many dreams but all of them branch off from investing: opening up clubs, owning a holding company, and/or produceing movie/tv shows. I am well aware of the fact that because of my disablities have really cut down my options in life, but i figure it just keeps me motivated to reach my goal because I will not allow myself to fail. The only thing holding me back is the fact that i have no money to start with. These last few months i have just been watching level two and news feeds, training you might call it. I have gotten pretty good at picking them and I am ready to start doing it for real,
Sincerely,
Brad D. Gordner
PS- thanks again. God bless you. I should also mention that i have posted this same message on other boards that way i can reach more people with my story. please email me BGORDNER@SUNQWEST.NET
You say you cannot get a job because you cannot be on your feet.
I’m sure you will find, as you start looking, that there are plenty of jobs that you can do from a seated position. I went through a temp agency to get a data entry job for a while, which is just typing and can easily be done from a seat or a wheelchair.
However, there’s nothing in your letter to indicate that you would be successful as a private investor, even if I were inclined to donate money to a stranger who has presented no evidence that his claims are the truth.
You are a teenager with very poor writing skills and no investment experience, and it seems to me that you would be wiser to finish high school and go to college (all of which you should be able to do from a wheelchair if that’s necessary), rather than try to solicit money over the internet.
Once you’ve got a college degree, you’ll be much better equipped to pursue your goal, or to discover a better one.
If you are disabled, you may find that finding meaningful work that you can do well is a lot more fulfilling than begging. If anyone gives you money, for the sake of your own pride, you should apologize to them and send it back.
You seem to have a chip on your shoulder and a judgement whipping out of the holster faster than Jesse James could whip out a gun.
I don’t know what your damage is, but I don’t think you can measure accurately what another has the capacity to do, and to tell them that they are lesser people for reaching out to get assistance.
Hey, I get ten of these letters a week in my e-mail box, and I don’t see anything that makes this one different. I think I’m being pretty generous in giving the benefit of the doubt and assuming that this actually is a disabled teenager.
Okay, I see your point. I concede that my statements were based in large part on the fact that I don’t believe him. No, they are not the same statements I would make to a real person in the situation he describes. Though I wouldn’t advise any real person in the situation he describes to go soliciting money on the internet, either. As you pointed out just above me, there are plenty of places where a deserving person can get a little help getting going, from state assistance to private organizations.
Sorry, I guess because of my own status being disabled and with all the crap I’ve had to deal with, I do get touchy with certain phrases being bandied about.
I am a dissabled 51 year old mother/grandmother with asthma and I am overweight too, this is doubly hard to find work.
With these three difficulties (age, size and asthma), it is extremely hard to find decent work in the job market nowadays as many companies want the beautiful,healthy unincombered people, not people like us, although we are still needing those jobs.
I have a job and it pays well, I drive for The Senior Services.
If there isn’t a lot that you can do physically like me and you can still drive your car, you might try finding something in this line of work. Desk jobs are fine if you have any training too.
No harm on either side, I hope, Mockingbird. I was so intensely annoyed by the OP that I chose my words without thinking about the Dopers who actually have disabilities, and I apologize if I made any of them, or you, feel that my hostile words were directed at them. Looking back, I think that the word ‘begging’ was pretty poorly chosen, since I only intended to insult the OP, and not anyone who really does need assistance.
I just get annoyed by people who use these cries for help to reinforce the idea that disabled people can’t be useful, productive people. They have enough crap to deal with without adding this guy to it.
I’m overweight too. I considered my mobility issues an impediment to weightloss, and thus I really let my diet and myself go and was in a self-perpetuating defeat.
I joined Weight Watchers 9 weeks ago and have lost 35 pounds. My mobility, or at times lack thereof, doesn’t have to be a reason to not feel and do my best.
Mind you, this is an option, and one I am bringing up respectfully because of the concern you mentioned.
i never asked for money…i wanted to know if any other people had similar experiences as i did. And as to the question of my being a real person with REAL disablities…i would be more than willing to send pictures of myself…and my legs. i do not doubt that i can get a job doing things…but i already recieve lost wages pay of the ammount of 280$ a month. But i spend most of that on medical supplies as i still have open wounds. It is my understanding that if i start bringing in a check from a job that i will lose my lost wages. Also i do plan on finishing school i will be in 12th grade this year but i will be getting homeschooled by a tutor paid for by my school Warrior Run High School, Turbotville, PA. I dislike the term “begging”. As i was not doing that at all.
As to me being a private investor......I am. I started out with very little and i still have very little, but i have increase the number. It would probably be more but i took a time out because i figured it would be safer if i just watched and learned for a few months....kind of like simulated trading. I have been successful, although i have no proof of that so i do not expect you to beleive me.
I thought you wanted money, since you told this whole story and then ended on “I don’t have any money to fund my investment scheme.” I thought you WERE begging, and since I’m disabled, too, it pissed me off. I will grant that it must be very disconcerting to be suddenly disabled; I wouldn’t know, since I was born with the condition I have. It really burns my butt when people try to use their disability to get money, which is exactly what I thought you were doing. Sorry.
There are many things you can do. I highly recommend college.
If you’re still in high school, you’re at home; do your parents not have insurance to cover medical supplies? Or do they not cover the stuff you need?
they cover the basic stuff but we still have charges for perscriptions and stuff we have to buy a special moisturizer gauze, gauze pads…stuff like that.
yes…it was very disconcerting to be fine one minute then wake up 6 weeks later to find that you are disabled.
College yes i have thought about it very hard. My only problem with going to college is that i have this phobia…i mean its always been with me but since my accident it has come out in a big way. I have a phobia about people…i.e…new people, big crowds…hell even the pizza man. I have always been very interested in the stock market and these past few month my track record of pick stocks and the prices i pick them at and sell have been well above average. So college for me would be a stepping stone to getting money…but in order to do that i would have to amass huge debt loads and pay them off before i could realize my dream. That would all keep me from the stock market for probably 6-10 years.
I have looked for grants for people who are disabled and are investors in the stocks market, but i cannot find one or i just don’t know what i am looking for. I know there has to be one out there.
Look into an online education. University of Phoenix offers degrees in a variety of subjects for people of all ages, and you never have to go to a classroom. And they offer a lot of good, solid, business and accounting-related courses, as well as computing skills, that can be done from home easily. Disabled or not, working from home can be very profitable. A friend’s son is a website designer for several very popular rap artists, and in his early 20s is already making a very good living at it.
Also, check into vocational rehabilitation services in your state. They will often help pay for education or vocational training.
Your best bet in life is to get the best education you can and then laugh at those who said you ruined your own life with your accident.
Just don’t let this turn you into a hermit. (Online classes and working at home are great ideas. I’m not talking about that.) But if you don’t want to go out and face people – which is understandable, I have days like that – then everybody loses out; they lose out on a chance to learn to be civil and treat you like a person with a brain, and you lose out on doing normal stuff like shopping. You’re going to have to learn to fight a lot of ignorance, I’m afraid, but if you don’t go out and about, said ignorance is not going to get fought!
Do you drive yet? Don’t let anybody tell you you won’t be able to, if you don’t. There are all sorts of adaptations that can be made. They do cost money, but there are ways.