09/01/2026
Beautiful sunset I saw while working my Overdose Awareness Day event. 💜🕯️🌅 After working 2 memorials for people lost to addiction yesterday and today, I am truly humbled and reminded of 2 things: addiction is a disease and we are all human doing the best we can with the broken tools we’ve been given. 💔 This is especially important because these past few years, I’ve been hurt by a lot of people: family, “friends,” people I worked with, etc. But, especially lately with having a dad who still drinks and is emotionally abusive even after a liver transplant 2 years ago and also finding out my abusive cousin who has a drug problem is back in prison and facing four years. Even though I’m doing this work now and enjoying it, I do know that every story is different, there is nothing I could do about those in my life who struggle with addiction or mental health, and I still have to set boundaries to protect myself because unacceptable behavior is still unacceptable.
I am only in week three of this outreach coordinator job, and things are going very well. Yes, there is a lot of events, I work until 8 o’clock at night some nights, and I have an hour commute some days, but I do not leave work nearly as stressed or exhausted as when I worked as a teacher and substitute teacher. Because I like the work and care about the cause, it doesn’t even feel like work sometimes, just an extension of my life. After I graduated college, I knew I wanted to do something in communications or behavioral health, but settled on soul-sucking office jobs and teaching jobs because I was afraid. I was afraid of not being good enough, stretching myself, taking risks, and leaving what was familiar. But I realize now to not let fear stop you from following what is aligned with you. 💖😀👍🏻
