Zackeria shared his inspiring journey with Leading CareerForce Partner Rural Minnesota Concentrated Employment Program (RMCEP). Here’s Zackeria’s story in his own words:
“At the age of 29 I reached a point of complete hopelessness in my life. I was caught in a seemingly endless cycle of directionless chaos. I would find someone to move in with, lie to an employer about having graduated high school so I could get a halfway decent job, tread water for maybe 2 years with no progress towards any goals because I didn’t have any, then get overtaken by my alcoholism and drown in the bottom of a bottle until I got kicked out and had to move back into my mom’s house with nothing but burnt bridges and hurt friends to show for it. I was on trip number 5 back to my parent’s basement after being kicked out of my fiancées house and at this point even staying afloat sounded like too much work for me. I couldn’t keep living like that, and I didn’t know how to live any other way which left me with only one reasonable sounding option for what to do next.
“This got me brought to the GRACE Unit in Brainerd with the hopes that a detox and some relief from the physical aspects of my addiction would be enough to reignite the desire to live life and motivate me to keep going. It didn’t. I was across the hall in the FOCUS Unit for in-patient treatment a month and a half later because I had relapsed and was back to wallowing in the nostalgic comfort of depression and self-pity that I knew so well. There was one moment in the GRACE Unit, however, that did end up making a bigger impact on my life than I could have imagined at the time.
“I was having a one-on-one session with a counselor, and as I was telling her about how I had managed to get through life up to that point, I mentioned that I hadn’t graduated high school. She asked me if I had any plans of getting a GED, which I kind of laughed at and remarked that I didn’t need to. All I had to do was lie on the application because no one was going to call the school to verify it anyways. It was what I had done so far, and that was working out well, right? She looked me directly in the eyes and very sincerely asked me a question that I still hear in my head to this day. “Sure, but wouldn’t it feel nice to put it on there and know you were telling the truth?”
“Throughout the next few months as I resumed life, relapsed, returned to St. Joseph’s and then completed treatment hat question kept bouncing around my head. So, I decided to get my GED when I was able to, once I was out. It may not solve my problems, but it would help my self-esteem. I asked my counselor, called the county building, and stopped in at CareerForce to find out what it would take to make it happen. That was when I first talked to Molly from RMCEP.
“I went to the front desk to ask about where I had to go to get my GED as an adult and she happened to be talking to the receptionist at the same time. They pointed me in the direction of ABE (Adult Basic Education) at the CLC (Central Lakes College) and Molly offhandedly told me to come back and ask for her when I completed it so we could talk about going to college. She didn’t say “if” I completed it, but when. I didn’t even know her yet and she was already rooting for me to succeed with a confidence I never had in myself.
“After I finished working with ABE and they had guided me through the process of getting a GED, I was invited by my career counselor Kirsten to attend a workshop that was focused on figuring out what I wanted to do with my life going forward. I accepted because at this point, I had a piece of paper that said I wasn’t lying anymore but still had no idea what to do with it. I showed up to the workshop and there was Molly again! We caught up about my progress, and I could tell she was genuinely excited for me even though we still weren’t working together yet. During the workshop she basically acted as a sounding board for all the things I was interested in, had done so far, and really didn’t like doing.
“This became a pivotal moment for me because when I left the building that day after working with her, I had something I had never had before. A career goal. I had landed on computer science as the crossroads between a passion of mine and a market in need of trained workers. That wasn’t the only valuable thing Molly helped me gain that day though. Thanks to her I also left with a tangible idea of what my future could look like, a set of actionable steps that I could take to make it happen, a possibility of financial support that would allow me to put my energy into getting there, and most importantly I had hope that I might be able to build a life I enjoyed living.
“After that moment I was able to officially start working with RMCEP and Molly, which made the journey so much easier. I no longer had to wander aimlessly praying things worked out. Instead, Molly broke down the process of turning my life around into small, focused, easily achievable steps and all I had to do was listen to what she advised and go where she pointed me. This moved the process along so fast that it doesn’t even seem like it has been very long, but so much has happened.
“I passed my placement tests with flying colors, got accepted into CLC as a full-time student, have been able to hold a job, participate in my community, and achieved a longer length of sobriety than I have had in my entire life. I am now 9 months sober and without that none of this would have been possible, but it also wouldn’t have been possible without the help of RMCEP. They helped me get a laptop to make school work with my schedule, their funding has allowed me to only work two days a week without fearing for my livelihood, and every time I have told them what I wanted out of life they helped me refine it into an attainable goal and guide me down the path towards it.
“Between their help, Meta-5, Trio, my Career Counselor, my therapist, my psychiatrist, and my AA sponsor; I couldn’t be more grateful for the level of support and amount of resources I have been able to access in the area. There is no way I would have been able to take being moved into a sober living house with 12 other housemates in a community where I knew nobody and make something positive out of it if it hadn’t been for RMCEP.
“It may have taken a village, but one day I hope I will be able to give back to the wonderful community here in Brainerd. I couldn’t ask for better people to have in my corner or a stronger recovery support system to have around me while I build a new life from the ashes of my old habits.”
- Learn more about all the programs and services offered by Leading CareerForce Partner RMCEP
- Contact staff at a CareerForce location near you
