Empower Resilience

I was working at my very first “big girl job” for a digital start-up company when this whole idea came together.

You know when you meet someone, and right away you click. Like your conversations have the same meaning and you understand that this person was put in your life for a purposeful reason. I met someone in the start-up I was working for with that same connection. And of course, she had the exact same name as me, just with a different spelling. Magen.

Magen and I started our friendship around health and wellness. We worked out together, we made fitness videos together, we spoke about how we wanted to get better, together.

Something we talked about frequently was how saturated the health and wellness industry was becoming. Mind you, this was in November 2016, and since then it’s grown twice if not three times more than it was then. We had these massive, in-depth conversations about how a lot that was going on throughout social media was entirely fake. What we saw people that we once looked up to, were turning into these advertisements that we wanted nothing to do with. We felt like people were being drawn in as money and not so much as human beings.

We wanted to create something of our own. Something that was different and something that people could turn to when they felt lost, without feeling like they were being used from an advertisement agency. We wanted to be different. We wanted to empower other people along their health and wellness journey just as we were doing with each other. But HOW?

About a month after these conversations kept arising, something was going to happen, without so much reason, that I don’t think I was fully prepared for.

Magen invited me to a church service. I grew up in a semi-religious family. Went to a nondenominational church every Sunday, volunteered at Sunday school, prayed whenever I felt it was ‘necessary’.  My true devotion to Christ came along much later. When I moved to New York, I quickly realized how alone this place felt. I was looking for a place to call my home.

The church was Presbyterian, which made me nervous right away. Traditional? HA, I’m going to stick out like a sore thumb. But I went anyways.

The service spoke about trusting God. Understanding that when obstacles arise, they  purpose. Even when we don’t think that they do. It helped open my eyes a lot, and helped me become even more grateful that right now, in that moment, I didn’t really have any hardships that I was overcoming. I mean, New York City is a messy, constant, transitional life in itself, but I wasn’t feeling any huge obstacles, yet.

A few days after the service, Magen and I were sitting in the front lounge area of our office building thinking of “brand names” or a way for the content we were creating to have a category that was extremely mindful for what we wanted to create. We wrote down words like, unstoppable, courageous, empowered, inspire, etc.

I remember looking down at the bracelet I was wearing. This beaded , handmade, bracelet that I was given from a seminar I attended from New York Women In Communications. They have these monthly seminars where they the bring in top woman entrepeneur’s, and they speak about how they built huge names for themselves, what obstacles they had to overcome, and really how they made it in New York City developing something that was purposeful and just their own.

Thinking about building something of value, something that other people might not agree entirely with, something that requires obstacles. There’s a name for that. There has to be some kind of name that describes picking yourself back up when the going gets rough.

Yes, there is indeed a name. Resilient.

Resilient:
1.) Ability to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions.
2.) Ability to recoil or spring back into shape after bending, stretching, or being compressed.

That “Aha” moment felt more sweet than ever.

Empower Resilience. Empowering other people to uncover their full potential by helping them understand their capacity to overcome difficulties quickly. Giving other people some kind of direction that they can stand back up, move in a different direction, and become the best versions of themselves even after being bent, stretched, or compressed into negative situations they might not fully understand.

Three days later, Magen and I, along with the rest of our company received an email from our boss letting us know that we were going to kick off February in a different way than we normally do each month. Our boss told us to arrive at the office early and gave us all specific instructions on where to be headed once we got there. Specific instructions? I’m sure you can guess what’s coming next.

That morning 56 out of 100 were laid off from the company that I worked for. I was one of them and Magen was too. I was given a piece of paper stating that there were many budget cuts being taken place and that they were needing to downsize immediately. I was given two weeks severance and told to pack my things and leave as soon as possible.

My stomach was in knots. Everyone was in tears. Being optimistic through all situations, especially at my first job, I had no clue that this would have ever happened to me. I didn’t have words. All of my co-workers went to grab drinks to get their mind off of it, to make light of the situation. To be honest, I didn’t understand why. I was broken. How could other people think about trying to make light in such a situation?

I was young. This was my first job. I never had to attempt to make light of any situation like this. That’s why. If I could go back in time, you bet your ass I would have gone to get a drink to make light of that ‘heartbreaking’ situation, and I would have made it a double if we’re still being honest. This was new to me though, and in that moment, I didn’t think I was going to overcome it. I thought I was going to go home and start packing to move back to Ohio.

It’s weird how situations happen that way. How you look back and you realize how far you’ve come with the mindset you bring to the table now. I look back and wonder why I thought those awful thoughts about myself “not being able to overcome” something. Thinking that I wasn’t good enough for a company I worked day and night for. Budget cuts or not, I thought I knew my worth and it was quickly dwindling after experiencing that.

Empower Resilience. Empowering other people to uncover their full potential by helping them understand their capacity to overcome difficulties quickly. Giving other people some kind of direction that they can stand back up, move in a different direction, and become the best versions of themselves even after being bent, stretched, or compressed into negative situations they might not fully understand.

I stood back up though, eventually. I got a new job and I made it work. I realized that in one week alone, there were so many signs and directions that I was being pointed toward, although I didn’t understand them, they served meaning. Magen, the church service, getting laid off, feeling alone, it all had purpose.

After experiencing that situation, I knew that it wouldn’t be the last time. Similar situations with a different purpose to be learned. All that have helped developed the type of person that I am and where I see myself headed. Things that I’m working on and trying to get better at. Things that I know I still have to go through to understand even further. All of these big and small heartbreaking situations that I never thought I’d overcome. Empowering my own resilience.

This is who I am and I don’t plan on stopping until I get to where I know I deserve. That being said, I don’t plan on stopping to help you uncover your very own resilience either.

 

Photography: Jenna McGeehen