Story

Hello, my name is Mia Masilko. I am a 22 year old girl attending Nebraska Wesleyan here in Lincoln, NE. I really need some help as I have had some severely bad luck lately. I have lost my entire world in a matter of five months. My partner, our home, my family, and I experienced sexual harassment at work and was fired for “inviting unwanted attention”. I did not ask for the attention. I hope if you are someone who likes to help those in need you will consider helping me. I’d like to give you some information about myself:

Me:

I am 22 years old and am studying for a Bachelor’s degree at Nebraska Wesleyan in Psychology. I want to be a psychiatric nurse one day and help people who have gone through similar situations to my own. I moved to Lincoln 4 years ago but have lived on my own since I was 17. I have been working since the age of fourteen – for awhile to support my little sisters and mom and to pay for the early college courses I had taken. I have two dogs and a turtle that I care for and am obsessed with plants as well as gardening. I have suffered a lot of abuse within the last decade, however this last year really through me on my face. I had a typical (working) college life. I worked 40 hour weeks, attended classes, and went to my internship. I would come home and eat with my fiance. I already suffered from PTSD, OCD, anxiety & depression from childhood trauma. I’ve experienced any kind of trauma you can name. Sexual, physical, emotional.

MY STORY:

One day I got home and my partner laid next to me in our bed as we normally did after a long day. He suddenly asked me to move out and get my own place because he said that too many bad things happen to me and he wanted to give me some time to see if my luck would improve because he didn’t want to deal with my trauma. (I didn’t realize I was being emotionally abused- as I grew up with this kind of abuse and it was normalized). I wanted to keep him as I have maybe two family members left. My entire family abandoned me when my mom got divorced because they saw divorce as a sin. (They weren’t even christian – they just wanted a reason to make my mom’s life harder – not that she just spent sixteen years with a physically abusive alcoholic). He was all I had left. Everyone saw the signs but me. Even as I was moving all of my things (alone – no movers, friends or family wanted to help me) – his whole family (two siblings AND two parents) where there helping him move and watching me struggle down three flights of stairs. Moving took me three weeks on my own. This constant physical work triggered a fair share of severe 24-hour migraines.

A few months went by and I was at my new home. I was able to get a discount so I could afford the rent alone since I worked for the apartment company at one of their properties. One night he came by as I asked him to hang out with me and a whole week had gone by since I’d seen my partner that I was so used to seeing at bedtime each night. I missed him. On his way over he texted me “I’m sorry”. I was deeply confused as he showed up two hours late. He had a single trash bag of my clothes and items. He told me I was too much and needed to “get rid of my mental health” – which isn’t even the correct phrasing of the concept. He meant to say I should get rid of my mental illness – but I told him countless times one cannot do that. Just like that he left me sitting there, silently took his spare keys off my keyring and drove off. I haven’t heard from him since. It’s been five months.

You must keep in mind too – my mom was abused constantly and she always told me to be quiet so CPS would not come. Abuse was normalized for me and has continued to be this way in my future relationships – despite intense therapy. Trauma lies mostly in the subconscious and embarrassingly pops out when you don’t want it to. I didn’t realize these traumas had become the reason I can’t wake up without immediately taking my medications, why I can’t go into certain parts of town or buildings out of fear. I even started feeling afraid of males or authority figures in general and had no idea why.

At least I still had my job. I was an assistant property manager. The job paid well, I enjoyed my customers and loved the office/administrative setting. I was so good at my job that maintenance would come to me with questions over my own boss. There was a significant amount of workplace bullying against me. It was three people – me, my boss, and our leasing agent. She admitted one day that she wanted my job and I immediately saw a shift in her behavior. She would make very inappropriate comments about her body to my boss and it would just have him mesmerized. My boss would gaslight me as well – he’d ask me to come into my office and tell him exactly what was bothering and when I opened up about my struggles with trauma he began to use my triggers against me. She would say sly comments whenever he wasn’t looking but I started to worry for my job when he started flirting back. One day a customer sexually harassed me. We were in an office setting and it was three people in the office and they were all gone but me. I reported it to my boss and he fired me months later saying that I invited the attention. Keep in mind – he had me work the entire day. The girl in the office “didn’t like to walk” so he had me deliver notices, walk apartments, give tours and send in reports. The day was coming to an end and my boss called me into his office. Surprisingly his boss was there and they joked about his hair loss for ten minutes laughing and having a good time. That Saturday I had ran the property by myself and had FOURTEEN tours. A normal day has five tours maximum. That was a lot for one person and I didn’t eat until 5 PM that day. My supervisor said that I didn’t perform well enough that Saturday as a second reason for the firing, gave me a thirty minute lecture on how I can improve my Saturday’s – and then fired me just like that. They even followed me out to my car.

They also fired me the last day of the month knowing I would have to pay the full $1400 rent instead of my discounted $1,064 a month plus utilities, my car payment, medical bills and medications, gas, internet, vet bills and groceries. My puppy decided to get ringworm somehow right as I got fired so that was a good expensive bill. I had confided in my boss about how I was fearful of my financial situation and he’d always tell me that I was doing a great job and would be fine.

A few weeks later, I was sitting in my home enjoying a bowl of spaghetti and watching movies while I was doing homework. Suddenly I hear a knock at my door. I open to the door to see four police officers standing outside. I was afraid of men already. All four of them came in and said they were arresting me for “lack of car insurance”. I had been pulled over a month before. (At my trial – they discovered that the officer didn’t even try to look up my insurance). I was able to dismiss the case since I DID in fact have insurance that whole time. It was traumatizing though. Four very large men came into my home. When I asked them if I could go throw a bra on, they said yes but that they would all need to watch so that I don’t pull out a weapon. (I have ZERO violent history and garden for fun and guns scare me). I decided not to put a bra on because I didn’t feel comfortable with the officers staring at my bare chest. They cuffed me from behind and I fell into the backseat, hitting my pelvic bone on a hunk of metal. I cried out and no one said a thing. On the drive I wanted to make conversation to calm my nerves so I asked the officer how his day was going. His reply was: “Oh- we’re just looking for things to do”. I waited in the county jail for four hours. I was forced to change, get a mugshot, and was patted down by multiple officers (mostly men). They paraded me through the jail with my hands behind my back, no bra and the building was so cold you could see my entire chest and nipples. The right side of my walk path had to have at least 20 male officers and the left was full of angry criminals staring me down (also all men). They eventually let me go and I didn’t get so much as an apology – AND I still have to pay the court costs.

So that is where I am at right now. I lost my partner, job, and also gained a severe health condition due to my partner cheating on me as that will affect if I can have children. That I will have to deal with for the rest of my life. On top of that – I now have to change my diet to Gluten Free only as I was diagnosed with Celiac’s recently.  The good things is my headaches seem to dissipate when I eat this diet. So that is my life. I finally got hired for a job but I do not start for a month as they want me to do be out of school. I have tried door dashing, donating plasma, and participating in research studies. I also propogate and sell plants out of my home.

I could really use your help. Anything helps. I am about to lose my home, car, and I have no money to pay my bills. My puppy (that my ex and I had gotten together) needs medications I cannot afford and the psychiatrist that evaluated the severity of my PTSD said we will START with a 9 month program to see if she can help me start to live less anxiety and fear filled days. I have no family besides my mom who has no retirement funds so she has to work until she dies and lost everything after her divorce. She is currently suffering from skin cancer and liver issues and I want to get in a financially stable place where I can afford to take better care of her. Other than that I have nobody.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story.

Reasons I would be a good candidate to donate to:

-I am a determined, hard working and hopeful individual

-I care heavily for the environment and wildlife within our environments and plan on helping out the world someday. I am currently studying for a bachelor’s in Psychology as I’d like to be a Psychiatric nurse one day to help people with mental illness and trauma as I have been through. I also hope to run an animal shelter & adoption agency of my own one day. I have a soft spot for animals in need.

-I work and study hard – I attended college courses during high school to prepare myself and get ahead.

-I have honors in English and will graduate with honors

-I have been working since I was fourteen years old

-I try to work full time but in times of need I still work to pay my bills, such as the situation I am in now. I am enrolled in several research studies – one currently for research on the development of a vaccine for the Epstein-Barr virus. These allow me to pay part of my bills and help the community.

-I volunteer at homeless shelters and the food bank

-I volunteer at troubled youth organizations

-I have worked my way through school entirely on my own. I received a full tuition scholarship.