200 Social Life Quote 5, Staying Positive

# We Are All in the Gutter, But Some of Us Are Looking at the Stars. # http://www.highimpactmediagrouppanama.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/11.jpg ## Life is Full of Ups and Downs. ## Personally I believe what defines us is how we handle the downs. My life has been a freaking roller coaster. I have lost everything three times but in the midst of that I was able to still realize that life was an amazing gift. I could have easily sunk into depression and be paralyzed by fear but I kept going. I gained strength and resolve through all of the difficult experiences. ## I Would Like to Tell You a Story. ## Back in 2008 I was recently divorced living in Tampa, Florida. My Brother who I was living with had recently deployed to Iraq and I was desperate to find a place to live. I was selling cars while I was trying to get back into a hospital to work as a mental health counselor. So I settled on a room in St. Pete. The rent was cheap and the drive was easy into Tampa. I secured work at Tampa General Hospital and quickly began to stack up hours. Due to my experience as a nurse, EMT and mental health counselor they loved me. About six months went by and I decided that I would travel to Ethiopia for three weeks. The night before leaving I had a disagreement with one of my fellow mental health counselors. We almost came to blows in the back room. The job is stressful and I had just completed a sixteen hour shift. I said by to the team and left for Ethiopia. I was scheduled to work the night I arrived home so I went to work as usual. When I stepped onto the unit for night shift the shift supervisor told me that I no longer was employed at the hospital. So, highly dismayed and only a grand or so in the bank I went home in shock. A month passed and my Brother returned from Iraq after a 10 month deployment. We celebrated and he asked me to move back in with him. I was thrilled but I was still jobless and broke. Within a few weeks the repo company came for my car so I was now without transportation. I called my best friend at the time and asked for help. She was a student at Temple University studying Pharmacy and I had helped her in the past. All I asked for was $500 so that I could buy a nice Trek bicycle. Being in Tampa, the weather was perfect and I lived right in the middle of the action. So she wired me the money and I was back in business. I took a job working at a mortgage firm, post collapse and made just enough to survive. The funny thing was that the office was about seven miles from home so I would have to bring a change of clothes with me to work. https://media.giphy.com/media/l3vR4Nfdli0jnmF8c/source.gif The whole time I was selling mortgages I was contacting the nurse manager of the Psych unit at St. Josephs Hospital in South Tampa just about two miles from my house. I called her every week. The psych unit was huge with three different units so I knew they would call me in sooner or later. After about two months of calling she said it was my chance to come in for an interview. I packed up my suit nicely and rode to the interview. I changed in one of the hospital bathrooms. I was hired on the spot since it was not often that a nurse would apply for a job as a mental health counselor but since I was not licensed in Florida I could not be too picky. The great thing was that they paid me an amazing hourly rate at that time for my ten years of experience. So I spent the next year working at St. Josephs Hospital. I had so much fun and made many good friends. Most of the time I would work in the Acute mental health unit where most of my patients were violent, criminally insane or just not able to be controlled. The unit was very safe and the team was phenomenal. When I left to return home to Rochester, NY I was actually sad to leave the job. For the first time since leaving the Navy I felt like I was contributing to society in a positive way. During the whole time I rode my bicycle to work. I was able to save money, learn new skills online, go to the gym daily and get my self confidence back. Everyone thought I was crazy to ride my bicycle but gas prices were nearing $3 a gallon at the time. Who was the crazy one? ## How Did I Stay Positive During This Time? ## I was always someone who liked to read so I would spend my time learning about self-improvement. I also took many bike rides to the beach and sat contemplating the hand that life had dealt me. During this whole time I never got depressed. Everyone around me thought they knew what was best for me but in my heart I knew none of their recommendations would work for my life. ### I Looked Up and Decided I Would Live Life on My Terms and I Have Never Looked Back. ### https://img1.steemit.com/0x0/http://www.randyhilarski.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Randy-Banner-Steemit.jpg
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