Tell us how you are today?

I had been a temp for a many years… doing different jobs here and there…never got a job I’m the career I went to college for the first time for… did temp work for 8 years…went to college three times… first time for broadcasting… interested in the production side of things… then grad school for teaching English as a second language… work in that for 5 years but it was always part time work… and finally community college for computer programming… finally found my niche there…

Best hopes for this opportunity! Be praying for you about it!

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Go on right ahead! I share a lot on this forum because of the therapeutic effect it has.

Congrats on finding your stride!
Things were similar for me.
At 18, I originally thought law (rejected based on grades), then physics (couldn’t handle the workload while enlisted), aircraft maintenance (miserable work hours), engineering (tuition surprises) and landed on server administration a few years ago after seeing how successful some of my friends and acquaintances were.
I was WAAAAY off with my original plans for myself at 18. But tenacity, healthy introspection and continuing to seek new opportunities always works.
Glad you kept hunting, too! Really glad you found work that fits you. I wish everyone could.

I really appreciate all the support and encouragement from the community here. It’s extra motivation to know people I’ve never met are so kind and supportive of my goals!

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How am I? Feeling sad.

My daughter sent me the following article today. She is only 24, and this is what she has on her mind. Her ill brother is 22. This illness takes so many down with it.

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Oh gosh, @Day-by-Day . I can understand why you feel sad. I read the article to try and understand how my sons feel about their half-sister and her illness.

This is creative thinking! There are things we CAN do. I listened today to a NAMI “Ask the Expert” webinar on Supporting a Loved One with Psychosis. It talked a lot about how WE can use CBT to help our loved one. I plan to listen to it again an recommend to my close family once it is posted on the NAMI.org site.

Feeling better that I had the courage over the weekend to talk with my gf about her illness and the scars she has. Glad to report it didnt ruin the weekend either. Enjoyed 3 gorgeous days in the Atlanta metro had an outing to Piedmont park stopped by Henris Bakery flew a kite had a picnic just good everyday medicine. She said she was glad I wasn’t afraid to ask about her illness (even though I was). Both had a moment where we knew, much less remembered why we love each other. Good weekend, but still hate Mondays lol!

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@florentine
Those good times are the reason why the hard conversations are so worth the time and energy. Unknown, burning questions about the future and getting trapped in our own concerns spoil otherwise great opportunities to become closer.
Often, finding a reasonable time to talk about the hard stuff dissolves most, or all of those spoiling concerns.
I’m really glad you each got to be reminded of some of the reasons you are together.

For the Wreklus family,
We continue to chug forward in all ways, which is a blessing.
My brother now routinely meets up with a few others DX’d with SzA. He still struggles daily and is seeking one-on-one therapy, but we are working as a family toward that.
(If anyone knows of a good therapist in the Flagler / St. Augustine area in FL, PM me).

I put in my application for direct hire with my company. It will be good to finally start accruing vacation again, especially because my girlfriend and I are starting to kick around ideas of where we might like to go this summer (Disney? Maybe!)
My exercise goals are coming along. I’d like to be more focused on heavy weights, but the bigger goal is not to let cardio slip ever again.

My girlfriend has been dedicated to exercise as a priority. I still think her work schedule is disruptive to that goal, but she is making it to the gym most days of the week. Seems like I’ve finally managed to steer her away from the classic folly of high-rep, low-weight routines that are all too common to women’s exercise articles.
She has big goals for her annual Girl’s Weekend Vacation with her friends. With several months before that happens, I expect she will be very satisfied with her results.

Happy cake day! @NeverTooLate

Thank you. I had not noticed. LOL Does that mean I joined a year ago today?

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Yes it does. Happy Anniversary!

On Friday at work, I was looking at some photos I have in my cubicle of my kids on one of our annual rod trips… this one five years ago on a trip to the Adirondacks… I think it was Lake George… my daughter Allie looked happy then… made me feel sad :slightly_frowning_face:

The “before” pictures make me sad as well. I avoid looking at them. I do keep a happy “after” picture on my watch to remind me my son is happy now.

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I have an app called Shoebox that automatically uploads all the pictures it can find from your phone/computer/whatever. And then everyday I get an “On This Day in History” e-mail. Sometimes it’s a little sad, but I find that looking at the old pictures is bittersweet. I would rather see them and be reminded of the good times, than to not see them.

For awhile when my son had cut himself off from me entirely, I got a little OCD about it myself. Every day I’d scan the feed and fear that if there wasn’t at least one picture of my son, that would mean that he had finally, actually disappeared from my life. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t actually delusional and thinking that this was actually the case, but it was a superstitious sort of feeling. I always felt reassured when I spotted him, even if it was just in the background or something.

It was only fairly recently that I had a day come up where there was absolutely no picture of him. By that time, I’d had a lot more contact with him, and it was kind of a relief to have the streak broken so that I could stop thinking about it like that.

Nevertheless, the little daily reminders, though painful, still make me feel connected to him and remind me of the good times.

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Weary.

You know how sometimes a friend will look at you with sympathy written all over them? While I appreciate they care, I really do it just makes me more tired.

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This is why I don’t tell but my closest friends about what we are dealing with my daughter… they might look at her differently than if they didn’t know…

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I wish others could look at our family members and see them as brave people who have to be stronger than they could ever imagine.

This morning I was thinking how much I wish his old friends could see my son as strong and doing well. There’s a lot of rough water out there and our family members keep swimming.

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Yes they are brave. It seems an oxymoron as they are deeply fearful of just about everything/anything. But they get up and function every single day. I visited my son yesterday and while in no way do I agree with his oppressor/oppressed delusional behavior, he is living it. And he still smiled when we came to see him.

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I just signed up for the free online version of the 6 week program by NAMI called NAMI Homefront.

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After you finish it you will have to let us know if its useful for our family members without military backgrounds.