Hey! My name is Jack! I am the newest member of theSTRYV365. I am so excited to be working with this team and the mission. Everyday I get to work with amazing individuals and for an organization that is truly wanting to make a difference, no matter the amount of resources or energy it takes to get it done. But today, I thought it may be helpful for you to hear my story about the last few months and how impactful what we are teaching our student sis.  

I have been very fortunate throughout this pandemic. No one I love has lost their life to Covid-19 and I have been able to hang with my friends and family virtually and in person. However, there have been obstacles this year that have tested me. For the first time I have really doubted myself and what I was doing with my life. I hope this post allows you to reflect on the obstacles you may had throughout the pandemic and show you how much resiliency matters to a person’s life or how important it is to a student’s future.

I am 28, graduated from college with a teaching degree but worked for a well-known nonprofit organization in their youth development since I graduated. It was an organization I truly believed in and love to work for. Was I always happy with the place? No, but I knew I was making a difference and that allowed me to go to bed happy. It also allowed me to hang out with my family and buddies without any real work stress to worry about at night, which was great for a young person like myself. However, I did not know, how much it meant to me once it was gone. In early April, and then again in Late June, I was let go. I had worked for the organization for 5+ years and this specific association for two years. I had built great relationships with a lot of great people, but the organization decided I was not a necessity during the pandemic. I never was truly upset with them; they did what they needed to do but I did feel hurt I was not on their short stick to help them stay afloat during a difficult time. I kept thinking to myself, “if I am not good enough for them, what good am I?” I struggled with that question a lot. I struggled with the fact I was unemployed for the first time in my life and a feeling of worthlessness filled my daily thoughts.

This was new to me. This was something I normally never did; I didn’t doubt myself often. At the very least I had a plan for my future and that plan was now, shattered. But I am a tough guy (at least I thought) so I pushed ahead, keeping those thoughts just in my head. I did not know they would fester for a while and affect me in a deep way. Additional to no work, there was nothing else to do because of Covid-19. So, I dealt with my thoughts more and more and to make it worse I dealt with them by myself. I felt ashamed, to be blunt I felt like a disappointment. I was never harmful to myself or had any truly scary thoughts about myself, but I was acting different around people.  I got upset quicker, more things ticked me off and I never truly felt happy. Which for people who knew me for a long time, knew that this was different than my normal self. I am usually very positive; I usually have a smile on my face. Those positive thoughts never came or when they did, it was for short periods of time. I never knew how important a job was to my psyche.

I eventually got back to work. Something temporary and it brought me nothing but a paycheck, a smaller paycheck than usual but still a paycheck. I was grateful for it, but I would go to work and still have negative thoughts but now they were “How did I get here? Is this really what I want to be doing with my life?” These thoughts and feelings got worse. I would get home upset about not only what happened at work but more so, I was upset I put myself in that position in the first place. People would tell me, “You just got to get through this thing, it will all work out.” But I felt they had no idea what I was feeling, they all were considered valuable to their workplaces unlike me. Then I read an article about how to deal with the stress of unemployment.  It talked about slowing things down and emphasis the little successes I was having in my daily life. It allowed me to start to grow a little more self-worth. I started to be happy with little things that I took for granted. Even though I tried to be positive about small things, I still have this cloud of negative thoughts about my job and future. Then a breakthrough happened, I got an interview with STRYV365 and eventually the job was offered to me. However, when getting the job, it did not bring back the self-worth I had in the past. But the job was an addition to the self-worth I had been working on during the pandemic. It was stronger, and not so much on what I was doing for work but about how I was proud of myself for other things like, my creativity, being more active, being a good friend and family member and then being an employee for an amazing organization. It was these things that meant the most to me, these things that allowed me to overcome my future plans being shattered. It was my way of being resilient when facing an obstacle.

Resiliency is a difficult skill to have. I do not really think it can be mastered by someone telling you how to do certain things. But there are techniques that you can allow yourself to build resiliency when obstacles come. At STRYV365 we teach those techniques to our students, in hopes it will not only help them in the present but help them confront obstacles that have already happened or will happen in the future. We teach our students when the small things get you upset; it is not the impulsive decision that will make you happy but the thoughtful one. We teach when life gives you obstacles, it is up to ourselves to find the solutions or to ask for others to help us find solutions together.  

Right now feels like it is as difficult as it’s been in my whole life, but with the support I have from my friends and family and a better stronger sense of self-worth, I was able to navigate the obstacle of unemployment. But it is not over, more obstacles will come but I know the path is long and with a belief in myself and the support from others I know I can beat anything.

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