Women Helping Women

LISA BALTHASER

I know that my life may look wonderful and "normal" online, but I have been going through some really tough times personally. Life has a way a humbling us, and sometimes in ways that are painful.

I used to have a vibrant life and an active social life. I had many "friends." When the recession hit years ago, I lost my job like many other folks. Needless to say, my social life disappeared, and I lost my almost all of my so-called friends. Only a handful even had the decency to check up on me to see if I was okay or needed anything. For them, I will ALWAYS be grateful.

Now, if anyone who reads this has gone through something similar (and many have), you will know that this recession hit people like nothing we have seen before in our lifetimes.

I spent two years applying for jobs, like many others. How many? Well, I did track them and it was well over 2000 in two years, closer to 2500 with all the job fair applications.

And guess what? NO ONE hired me. Why? Well, I had changed industries about two years prior to being laid off and did not have enough time in my new industry to compete since there were heavy layoffs in that industry. I was considered an older worker, so it was a tough time. Corporate America told me loudly and clearly, they did not want me! Again, this was painful and left me feeling very hopeless and helpless since I was doing everything humanly possible at that point to find my place in the world.

As a former banker, when my first bill went unpaid, I nearly had a breakdown. When the calls kept coming and the jobs did not, I was sent into a depression for almost two years TWO YEARS! And yet only that small handful of people reached out to me to make sure I was okay. I was not.

I wanted to die every single day. I definitely did not want to be here. I lost my job, which is this case was my whole identity as a responsible human being as a banker. My identity was taken away from me when I could not pay the bills and became one of the people I used to call when I was a finance company manager. This was an interesting, but a painful, circle of events.

So now I had lost my identity, lost my friends, and lost my credit rating (and as a banker, that is EVERYTHING). And the sad fact is that most people had NO idea I did not even want to BE anymore. Most people just forgot about me when they did not see me in their circles anymore. This was HARD. This was EXTREMELY painful.

Life has not been normal ever since all these events occurred. I did eventually get a job in an unrelated industry, but it did give me the opportunity to work on the company website and social media. When I was let go for her to sell the business, it gave me hope that there was a place in this world for me. After all, I have both Associate and Bachelor degrees in Marketing!

I spent two years devouring everything I could learn about digital marketing and was opened up to the world if having a business online. I absolutely LOVE what I do now and glad I acted on what was in front of me. However, years of not working left its toll on my life and finances, as you can probably imagine.

So why am I telling you all of this today?

Two reasons:

1. Reach out to people and care about them. You never know what they are going through and you never know how much a simple "how are you doing?" can make a difference in their life.

2. I NEED YOUR PRAYERS! The years of stress have been taking a toll on my life in many ways. The next two weeks (or years since this is an unknown) are going to be very tough for me. It has been nearly 10 years and I still don't have my life back.

For those of you who know me, you know I carry on like all is great in the world. I have to. If I did not, I would surely break. While in some ways my life is much better, the residuals from the recession that I never recovered from has taken its toll in so many ways. Not just on me, but my whole family, who I can never repay for their love, patience, and support.

So, if you do nothing else today, reach out to someone and let them know you care. In my journey, this would have gone a long way.

One thing I do know is I am STRONG. I am a child of GOD. HE is the only reason I am still here today to write this. So, in case you ever wonder why all the Bible quotes - I KNOW HIS power, love and the peace that HE has given me through the past decade. A peace that could ONLY come from HIM.