Learning from Experiences
It is essential to get firsthand accounts of past or present experiences and identify areas of focus that will give insight into creating projects or plans to eliminate community concerns. This process or procedure has been well articulated to provide valuable assets for collaborating between the minds of many to make a change, boost the economy, and allow the world to pull together to create a world where everyone can live great and raise awareness of uncontrollable conditions worldwide. Below is our first experience entry; keep looking back for new entries.
Not enough time! No money! No other option other than going back!
9-21-2024 - Around August 2023, I overheard two guys discussing how they couldn’t get an extension for their housing or even find a job. To find their own housing, they must acquire a sustainable income, a good credit score, and a banking record to prove it. The solution of the conversation was to go out, get extremely high, and go back into the treatment center. After contemplating this, I realized it would be a challenge because getting General Relief and a Housing Subsidy requires having a bank account with no more than one hundred dollars. The average housing price for a small apartment can be anywhere from sixteen hundred to twenty-five hundred dollars. With the minimum wage price, as you get paid from the job and all your benefits are canceled, it is incredibly challenging to do this. One of my triggers is pressure, and with this amount of pressure, it is a struggle to remain sober. Because of this, the potential of using substances could happen, eliminating most of my funds. Substance disorder is a real thing. Making it difficult for people not to stop even if they wanted to. This is where a person contemplates going back and restarting. It seems like a person sometimes doesn’t have enough time, and then all the money gets used up to the point where there is nothing to do. Boredom sets in, which is a trigger too. With all these triggers revolving around a person, it is a struggle. This is a first example of learning from experiences. The identifiable focus areas are pressure, boredom, triggers, time, expenses, and funding. By collecting and learning from stories like this, communities can collaborate and pull together to plan projects that will eliminate key elements preventing the option of going back. -Anonymous
Found Myself in a TRAP!
Lol! When I say TRAP, I mean it! I decided to go into a Transitional/Shared Living Skim Agency for a bed. After a few months, I started to notice that no one had a job. When a person tried to get one, the organization shot it down and manipulated them to either go to school or wait on other benefits with the idea that they would get money in their pocket. “Money in their pocket” never happened, though! It was like the organization didn’t want people to work. It seemed as though no one had any requirements, like submitting proof or even putting in applications anywhere—no drug testing in any circumstances. No programs! And when people didn’t comply, they were pushed out quickly. This was like the Matrix movie or similar to Plato's Allegory of the Cave. People sit back like puppets, looking at the shadows, waiting patiently for a reality that the organization presented. Broken promises! As people left, others would come in without insight or adequate resources to acquire a job or permanent housing. The staff and case managers were strictly micro-managed to the point they were saying I cannot find you other housing because they wouldn’t let me at this time. This led to only two options: stay here and feed the beast, or move on and try a different one. The identifiable focus areas are greed, manipulation, control, and “Where am I at, to be honest!” By collecting this information, officials and governing agencies can put additional guidelines in play to ensure that organizations use specific systems and procedures to help agencies. Overall, maybe more insight can be collaborated from this entry to create a change. -Anonymous
Realization of the disparity between an individual's professed identity and their actual self.
Behavior can define a person's character, writing a narrative that the world can see and hear. Actions being seen may begin to change the character's appearance, language, and choices. There is a common saying that humans are “creatures of habit.” The mind and soul get trained by repetitive actions, creating a norm that acts out the character to which the narrative tries to align or adapt. Verifiable changes can be seen by the audience displaying new traits that can present happiness, sadness, anger, et cetera. The viewers of the character start to question the change in the norms seen as everyday events identifying the change.
“Truth hurts!” When a person hears truths that differ from the norms, the mind starts to believe without a doubt the narrative in which the mind has created a way of thinking about that character and is now seeing the development of new traits. The mind may dislike the presented narrative because of high hopes and feelings towards that character. For example, a person may cry when a character dies in a movie. Or, a person may begin not to be so impressed when a character in a film decides to go against the current morals and values of the viewer, developing negative emotions.
Questioning if that person is still the previously presented character is the new thinking that is brought to light by the viewer. A character may have to live the way the culture lives instead of the way they may feel from within. However, over time, this can create mental strain, leading to unhealthy ways of thinking. This new way of thinking can change the character's choices and rewrite the narrative. At this point, the character could change their identity in a sense because the new is shining through. Unfortunately, the new shining light may start to blind the audience, left in the dark for the duration of the repetitive norm adopted by the mind.
The deflection of the new light shining can occur because the viewer has built up a habit of how the character must live and present. It is often deflected by pointing the subject matter to another person, commonly known as “changing the subject.” Now, it can be challenging to “change the mind” of the viewer; a prominent event of this is anger or a defensive approach. Propelling a change in the viewer's ability to change the perspective inhabited by cultural norms is a virtue; without this, everything would always remain the same. -Anonymous