Dad Stole $1000 for Drugs, Ruined Son’s Study Abroad Dreams

My addict dad spent my entire future on a 3 day bender and my mom is defending him

i’m actually staring at my phone screen right now and i feel like i’m about to black out. like my vision is literally going blurry and i’m shaking so hard i can barely type this. i want to scream until my lungs give out. i’ve been planning this for two years. two years of working double shifts, skipping meals, not buying a single thing for myself, just so i could finally get out of this hellhole. i’m 19. i was supposed to leave for my study abroad program in literally 10 days. 1.5 weeks. i already have my bags packed. And payed for my tuition. i have a side job lined up at a cafe over there so i could actually survive while studying. this was my exit. my one chance to finally breathe and not have to look over my shoulder every time i hear a door open.

and now it’s gone. all of it. i checked my banking app this morning to send the deposit for my student housing the final step and my balance was $12.

twelve. dollars. there was over $1,000 in there 3 days ago. i thought because i turned 18 last year that the account was private, but apparently because my “dad” helped me open it when i was 16, he still had access to it. i went downstairs and he’s passed out on the couch smelling like a literal brewery and god knows what else. he spent my entire future on a three day bender. a thousand dollars of my blood and sweat gone in 48 hours so he could stay high for a weekend. and my mom i went to her crying, literally begging her to help me or tell me he’d pay it back and she just looked at me with that pathetic, tired face and told me to “stop being so dramatic” and that “your father is sick, he didn’t mean to do it, he was just in a bad place.”

sick? HE STOLE FROM HIS SON. he knew that money was for my housing. he knew if i didn’t pay it by friday i’d lose my spot in the program and the job i had waiting for me. he literally sabotaged my entire life and she’s standing there in the kitchen making him coffee like he didn’t just commit a crime. she’s an enabler. she always has been. she’d rather see me rot in this house with them than admit her husband is a thief and a loser. i have no one to ask. no grandparents, no aunts, no friends who have that kind of money to just loan a 19 year old.i’m completely stuck. i worked so hard. i did everything right. i stayed out of trouble, i got the grades, i saved every penny, and it didn’t even matter.

i’m sitting in my room looking at my suitcase and i’ve never felt this much hate in my life. i hate him. i hate her for letting him do it. i hate that i’m 19 and my life is already over before it even started because i happened to be born into this family.

i have to email the program and tell them i can’t come. i have to tell the cafe manager i’m not coming. i have to stay here in this room hearing him stumble around and hearing her make excuses for him while i try to figure out how to even get 5 dollars for lunch. i feel like i’m suffocating. i actually can’t do this anymore. Fuck this shit.