My elementary school teacher taught me the poem "Try Again" by William Edward Hickson and I think it really did stick with me:
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(full text poem and video reading available to copy and paste at the end of the blog)
I faced many challenges coping with my bipolar disorder and finishing my college education and getting a job in my field. This is my journey and what I had to overcome to accomplish my dreams:
❀ While in college at University of North Georgia, I had to take a semester off to get my mania under control, and refocus on my personal and spiritual life. I graduated later than the 4 years typical, but I got a bachelor's in Psychology with a minor in Studio Art. I graduated December 2010.
❀ I was told to work in the field of psychology, I would need to get a graduate degree. I did apply to psych technician jobs and other entry level positions in the mental health space, but never got hired. I thought Art Therapy would be a great career that I could incorporate my psychology and art degree. I applied to about 5 graduate schools all around the country. I even flew out to do an interview with one school in Virginia. I did not get accepted to any of them.
❀In the meantime I worked at a pizza shop and as a nanny and at a diner as a waitress and then I tried caregiving. I took care of my great grandmother in her home and I really enjoyed doing activities with her. We did cooking, games, gardening, and even embroidery. But I did encounter a mental breakdown and had to leave taking care of my great-grandmother. This experience got the idea of working with seniors in my mind and doing activities with them. There were several mental health hospital stays after that.
❀ I continued to do caregiving with a company and decided to apply for Clinical Mental Health Counseling graduate school at Georgia Southern. I got accepted and moved to Statesboro, GA in fall 2014. I moved down there all by myself. I paid for my rent on my own, my own car note on my own, for the first time in my life. I worked full-time and was in school full time. I worked as a personal care assistant in a group home for people with mental health and intellectual disabilities with Pineland Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities.
❀ It was very difficult managing all of that on my own and I encountered a lot of mental health challenges. There were periods of depression there were periods of mania, and I was quite lonely. I ended up being in the mental health hospital while I was down there probably three times within a one and a half to two year period. I lost my job at the group home as a personal care assistant, and I tried to work as a caregiver. Ultimately with the additional hospital stays and lack of income, I had to drop out of the graduate mental health counseling program, and move back home to Marietta, GA with my parents.
❀ During one of my mental hospital stays down in Savannah, GA, I learned about recreational therapy. There was a recreational therapist at one of the hospitals I was at and she printed me out like 50 pages of coloring pages to help me pass the time while I was in there. She did other fun activities with us. I was like I could do that, that's the job I want I want! I want to be a recreational therapist! I had never heard about recreational therapy before. They actually had a recreational therapy program at Georgia Southern; however, it was a bachelor's program. I talked to the director of that program and he said, since I already had a bachelor's degree, he suggested I go for master's in recreational therapy, instead of getting a double bachelor's.
❀ I moved back to Marietta, Georgia with my parents and worked as a nanny. I got accepted into a Masters in Therapeutic Recreation online at SUNY Cortland, out of New York. The online program was a lot less stress. My parents were gracious enough for me to live at home without rent. I was able to focus on my education and also have a little money for my living expenses from my nanny job.
❀ When one family I was a nanny with did not want to hire me for the summer time, I applied to some activities director's jobs. I got my first Activities Director job at a nursing home - Pruitt Health in Marietta, GA. I didn't really know a whole lot about being an activity director. Many of the staff members guided me and helped me learn the different aspects that I needed to do for that job. Planning and leading the activities came naturally for me. I had some experience leading some art classes, and was able to use my creativity to think of activities to do with the patients. But there are other things involved like doing assessments and care plans and different regulatory things I was not familiar with.
❀ While I was working as an activities director I was doing my last year of Therapeutic Recreation Masters program. I had to make the decision if I was going to get the Master's certificate program or the full Master's degree. The teachers and the NCTRC (National Council for Therapeutic Recreation Certification) staff member recommended that I go ahead and go for the full masters degree which included an internship, which would allow me to sit for the certification exam. Otherwise with the Master's certificate I would have to get a job under a CTRS (Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist) and work for 5 years, to be able to sit for the certification exam under the equivalently path.
❀ I was blessed to get internship at Skyland Trail which is a wonderful mental health treatment facility. They have a great adjunctive therapy program with art therapy, music therapy, horticultural therapy, dietician (cooking) group, along side the recreational therapy program. My internship supervisor allowed me to work with all those different disciplines. I also led my own recreational therapy classes, leisure education, team building and team sports. I still needed to have some income during that time. The recreational therapy internships are designed to be full-time, so I had to leave my activities director job to do the internship. Most internships are not paid, and mine wasn't, so I got a part time job caregiving. I was able to do about 30 hours a week at the internship instead of 40 to meet the requirement of the full-time internship. Instead of completing the internship in like 3 months, it took 6 months to complete it. My internship lasted from January to June of 2019. I got married in April 2019, during that time 💕
❀ I finished all the requirements of the Master's program, but because my internship lasted through the summer I would officially graduate December 14, 2019. In October 2019 I got the job of Activities Manager at Dunwoody Health and Rehabilitation. It was a really large nursing home and rehab around 200 patients. I managed three activities assistants. I was able to sit for the national certification exam for recreational therapy, and was officially awarded my CTRS (Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist) in December 2019.
❀ COVID hit our nursing home hard. I worked all throughout that time. Our census went from like 200 to like 75 patients. Some of this was due to deaths of patients to COVID or other illness or age, also our census dropped due to hold on admissions due to survey results giving us an immediate jeopardy, or limiting admissions with covid. It was a very difficult time. We had to adapt and bring activities to rooms. We even did painting activities and BINGO in room. Of course we followed all the PPE requirements with N95 masks and and goggles, and gowns and gloves going into the rooms of patients with an infection. We had to get tested sometimes twice a week for COVID. We also received the COVID vaccine immediately when it came out, and it was given to all the staff members at our facility, besides those who had a waver.
❀ So when me and Chris started courting, he was working in Chattanooga, TN and living in Calhoun, GA. We started courting in February 2017. We got married in 2019. During our courtship I applied to jobs in Chattanooga, as well as Atlanta. I got the job in Atlanta, at Dunwoody Health and Rehabilitation. We lived in Marietta, GA, renting out the basement apartment in my parents' house.
❀ Chris started his own business doing diesel truck repair December 2019. He was doing road service in the Atlanta area in Cartersville. The opportunity came up to where he would be able to rent out my late grandfather's truck shop in Tunnel Hill, Georgia. After the eviction policy during COVID was lifted, my Grandmother was able to remove the renters of the shop at that time. He did a lot of work to remove all the garbage that the previous renter had piled up in the shop. For a time he did stay up there to try and build business in the North Georgia area, going back and forth from our home in Marietta. But it was difficult. I was still working in Atlanta.
❀ I continued to apply and go on job interviews while I was working at Dunwoody Health and Rehab in Atlanta. I applied to nursing homes mental health facilities in both the North Georgia and Chattanooga area, and also Atlanta. I always had a passion for the mental health population, being that I had a Psychology degree and lived experience. But I began to realize that working with the senior population and rehab. population would be less stress than mental health. Some led to job interviews, some did not; some led to job offers, some did not. None of the job offers really seem to provide any better opportunity than the current facility that I was at.
❀ After 5 years of job applications, interviews, and declined job offers. In spring of 2022 I applied and interviewed at Siskin Hospital for Physical Rehabilitation in Chattanooga Tennessee. They gave me a job offer exactly what I asked for. I accepted the job offer and said I would need 30 days before I could start. During that time my Aunt Gloria passed away. I took it really hard and I was also stressed with work. I took some time off for grievance. I planned on going to the funeral, but I became manic and had to go into the mental health hospital. I returned to work and I put in my two week notice at Dunwoody Health and Rehab. And even planned a large event for skilled nursing care week before my departure.
❀ I finally got a job in the greater Chattanooga area allowing Chris and I to move to North Georgia or Chattanooga. We were looking for places to rent in the Chattanooga area. But nothing was suitable for our needs. My cousin, who is a mortgage loan originator, told me about the USDA mortgage where you can buy a home in a rural area with little to no down payment. My dad is a realtor and he worked with me to find a home in the Tunnel Hill, GA area near my extended family. By the grace of Yahweh and the hard work of my cousin and my dad I was able to purchase a home 🏠. That was a miracle 🙌.
🦋 Shortly after starting my job at Siskin, we found out I was pregnant 🤰 🙌. I worked with a psychiatrist that was also an obgyn, that specializes in Women's Mental Health. She helped me before during and after the pregnancy to ensure my mental health was stable. She knew all the research to, help her know what medications had low risk for harming baby and would be effective for maintaining mental health stability. This was a miracle, as many people think you can't have a baby when you have bipolar, or that you can't be on mental health medication while pregnant. I also had PCOS, Thyroid disease and Gestational Diabetes that needed the help of High Risk Obstetrical Care Specialist. I would some times have to visit that specialist once a week to check on my labs and ultrasound. The pregnancy progressed safely, HalleluYah.
🦋By the grace of Yahweh, I safely gave birth to our baby boy David James 👶. It is nothing short of a miracle. He is over a year and half yes old now, and so smart and sweet. I have worked at Siskin for about 2 and a half years as of this post in fall 2024. And I couldn't be happier! Siskin is a wonderful company, I have friendly coworkers, and supportive supervisors. Both staff and patients really value the recreational therapy program, which some activities directors can't say. Plus there are opportunities opening for advancement.
🦋 Throughout my young adult life I dreamed of having a loving husband and having a baby and having a career that I could pursue my passion. I went through a lot of obstacles but I kept Trying Again.
I persevered, I did not fear. With patience, I did prevail. And I received my reward.
HalleluYah!
Full Text Poem for copy and paste:
"Try Again"
by William Edward Hickson
'T is a lesson you should heed,
Try, try again;
If at first you don't succeed,
Try, try again;
Then your courage should appear,
For, if you will persevere,
You will conquer, never fear;
Try, try again.
Once or twice though you should fail,
Try, try again;
If you would at last prevail,
Try, try again;
If we strive, 'tis no disgrace
Though we do not win the race;
What should you do in the case?
Try, try again.
If you find your task is hard,
Try, try again;
Time will bring you your reward,
Try, try again.
All that other folks can do,
Why, with patience, should not you?
Only keep this rule in view:
Try, try again.
