My Orange Duffel Bag Video #4:
Sam Bracken: Everyone Has a Story
Hi, everyone. This is Sam Bracken, how are you?
You know, everyone has their own story. And it’s really impossible just by looking at someone to really understand what people are gone through. You just don’t know and for us to assume that we know. It’s just mistaken. I’ve heard said that, we’ve become a reflection of our life’s experiences – good, bad or indifferent. And it is really true, a lot of times our environments, the way we grew up, can dramatically impact the way we see ourselves and what we produced results in our lives.
But the interesting thing is out of the billions of people in this world, and everybody is born in different circumstances, and everybody has their own unique nature. The one thing we all share is regardless of color, or of social status or wealth — everyone suffers. Everyone has disappointments. Everyone knows what pain is. Everyone has struggles and trials. It’s really the great equalizer. I mean because everyone has, and we all share it – sort of man’s connection to mankind. We all have it. And what we do with the suffering whether we choose to learn from it, to grow from it and to help make us better. Or, whether we stay stagnant and become bitter. It’s up to us. It is up to our choice. And, a lot of times back to determine our happiness in life. But as we think through this, it’s when we reach out to other people with empathy, and understanding. Trying to understand their suffering, some of the greatest, kind, amazing things can happen in this world. We’d like to say,
Be that one to help just one.
What are the ways you help people is by understanding their story and empathically sharing with them how much you can for them by listening and understanding their story. There’s amazing things that can happen, as you just show interest in people, as you look at them with different eyes, as you try to comprehend how they might see the world and why they might see the world that way.
So, what I’d like you to do is I’d like to find out more about your stories. So I am asking you to submit your stories in writing or video. We’d love to hear from you, and to hear your stories on how you’d turned trials in the stepping stones, tribulations in the triumphs, or how maybe you were a victim and you’ve turned into to a victor, and you’ve made your life victorious because you’ve turned it around. I would love just to understand what is that you’ve been through and you’ve taking the opposition in your life and turned it into something productive, turned it into something that’s powerful, and something you can learn from, and that you can help others to learn from.
Thank, have a great day!
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Sam,
I just heard about your website from a friend after I posted on Facebook that I wanted to write a book this year about my story. You are right, everyone has a story and now it is time for me to share mine.
In short, I am 34, I’m married, I have two kids and I’ve been at my job for five years. I’m living a “normal” life or the “American Dream” as some would say, but that’s not how it’s always been.
The first time I was in fostor care, I was 4 years old. I can remember my bike being taken away, but I didn’t know why. I said goodbye to my mom and step-dad, but at least I still had my brother and sister with me.
I remember coming back to live with my mom and step-dad but things didn’t seem normal. My mom would always drink, and my step-dad would beat her, and then beat us too. I would learn to hate him for that for many years.
As the older sibling, I would always take care of my brother and sister when my mom was drunk, and when they were fighting. I would try to protect her as much as I could but no matter what, things would never change. I have lived in more than 13 fostor homes, and some I lived in more than once. I had never lived in any one place for more than a year and by the time I was 21, I had moved 26 times.
When I was 17, I was emancipated out of “the system” and I was just happy to be “free”, and free I was. I did what I wanted, when I wanted and was happy to do so. It wasn’t long before I got pregnant, had a baby, and got married. I was eager to create what was seemingly absent my entire childhood; a family. I wanted to be “normal” but I didn’t know how. It did not take long for me to leave my son, and husband and live my life, and do all of the things that I had “missed” out on. This led me to a world that I had never imagined, a place I said I would never go because I said that I would never be like my mom. Somehow the drugs promised me something that I had never experienced before, true freedom. The freedom to not feel, to not care, to be myself, to be numb and escape the haunting from feelings past.
Shortly after that I met a woman who invited me to church and after studying and struggling for two years I gave my life to Christ. I was reunited with my son as his mother and was given a second chance to be what I needed for him. I got married, and had another child and lived happily ever after….or so I thought. After going through a horribly difficult time with my husband I began to hear the whispers of freedom that I had heard before. Only this time, they came from a wine bottle. I became an alcoholic and lived that way for five years. One night, after Christmas at my brother in laws house with the family and on our way home, I threw up on myself all over the place in the front seat while my husband and children sat there quietly. I knew at that moment that I needed to change, but I didn’t know how.
I have been sober now for nearly one year. Through my journey, I have discovered that I have a gift. I have the gift to inspire, and motivate others for change. I want to share my journey with as many people as I can, and I am hoping that I can give the gift of hope to other fostor children, and many others who have survived “the system”, or who have ever been affected by alcoholism.
My goal is to write a book, which I believe is the best way to share my story. Please let me know if you have any input, I am very interested in any wisdom that you can share. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Jessica Potoshnik
1437 NW 202nd Lane
Shoreline, WA. 98177
(425)-444-5773
jpotoshnik@gmail.com