Save your spoons...First Honors Talk, Fall 2021

 

...Honors Talk Series...

"Mental Wellness When the Rest of the World Doesn't Seem to Care"

Speaker:  Laura Johnson, FLCC Book Nook

Even in the best of times, there are those among us who struggle with mental health and wellness.  And you might be one of those people.  Add to this the idea that we are, and have been, living in some difficult times.  What we end up with is the raw fact that many of us are looking about for support, for coping mechanisms, for answers, and for acceptance.  Too often the world seems unable or unwilling to give those things.

I consider myself a fairly happy person, but there are times when I really struggle to understand why I feel the way I do or what I can do about it when I am feeling less than my best self and I have no idea why.  I have chronic pain, so I somewhat understand things that are hard to explain to others (and sometimes to ourselves) because others can’t see them.

I struggle with it, and yet I know that it doesn’t come close to how someone who suffers from depression must feel.  I want to be better equipped to help myself when I need to so that I can better support those around me who need me to be a good advocate for them and, so I can understand, so I can be a reliable member of their support network.  Even when times are dark or hard or a struggle, we need to know that we are not alone and we need to find ways to help ourselves and each other. 

Because we all know that sometimes it feels like the world doesn’t understand us, doesn’t see us, and has no idea how to help us or even that we need help.  Often, we are right.

Like my own chronic pain, mental un-wellness is often an invisible struggle and as a society we aren’t often terribly good at understanding things we can’t see.  Broken bones we understand.  A cut arm we understand.  Colds and headaches we understand.  But mental health?  That one is hard.  Not only is it often invisible, but it manifests itself in ways that seem ‘easy’ to fix for those who aren’t suffering from it.  Just go outside.  Just talk to more people and make friends. Get more sun.  You have no reason to be unhappy, so cheer up.  Just do the thing.

Have you tried not having the flu?

That’s what it seems like these sorts of suggestions or statements are saying.  None of them acknowledge the difficulty or uselessness of doing any of those things if the problem is beyond our personal control.  If you just. Can’t.  Some call this not having enough spoons.  Some call it having demons.  Some use the official names from the DSM-V.  Some make jokes about it. Some just smile and say they are okay because they are so tired of trying to explain.  And some don’t call it anything at all, because why bother?

But we HAVE to bother.  All of us together.  And that means talking about it.  So, we are gathering to do just that.  Laura Johnson knows these things all too well and she will share her thoughts with us and guide us in discussion.

Wednesday, 9/29, 5:00 – 6:00

Room 2310 with masks on (capacity 24)

Or come remotely via Webex.

Speaker:  Laura Johnson, FLCC Book Nook

 

We Need to Talk About Mental Health

Let the Talks Begin!

Happy Week Four, friends!

I am excited to announce that we are officially beginning the Honors Talk Series (HTS) for Fall 2021.  Our first speaker is Laura Johnson, who works in the bookstore as a store manager.  She has this to say about who she is and what she is calling us together to talk about:

Laura Johnson is a second-generation collegiate retail professional with an addiction to subsistence living. After living through a lifetime’s worth of experiences in mental illness, disability services, alcohol and drug addiction, marriage, divorce, love and heartache, the laugh and worry lines are well earned. Subsistence living and homesteading is a passion that maintains her sanity, as well as a healthy dose of therapy and healthy respect for medication.  Never one to let a living thing suffer, she named her homestead after the oddities and misfits: “Off Center Acres- Redefining normal, one living creature at a time.”

We hear time and time again that mental health is increasingly important and yet, there seems to be no shifts in how we operate to treat those suffering from mental illnesses. Society still operates as if mental health is somehow “other” from physical illness. This talk is to reinforce mechanisms to protect our mental health and reinforce our right to prioritize our mental health as part of our overall healthy lifestyle.

I don’t think I can convey how much I love this.  So many suffer from mental health challenges and they are too often overlooked, judged, disbelieved, or otherwise silenced.  This needs to stop.  We have to support those who struggle with issues relating to mental health, just as we support those with physical challenges.  Come engage in this conversation with us.

All are welcome – whether you have your own mental health challenges or you simply want to hear the conversation and brainstorm ways we can support those in our lives who face these obstacles.  Mental health should never stop someone from living their fullest life and we should never reduce someone to just their diagnoses.  Let’s have this conversation together; you are not alone.

You can attend this talk virtually or join us in a classroom on the FLCC campus.  Here is what you need to know:

Talk Title:  “Mental Wellness When the Rest of the World Doesn’t Value It”

Date:  Wednesday, 29 September 2021

Time:  5:00 – 6:00

Room:  2310 (24 person capacity, masks required)

WebEx Link

(email me if you need more information or other WebEx login info)

Come Chatterbox with Us....

Hello and well met, friends!

I am excited to have just completed the second week of the semester and beginning the third.  We still seem to be holding healthy and though there’s a flurry of activity around testing, vaccinations, and uploading paperwork, there is also a steady focus on learning and getting back into the swing of education in an actual classroom.  I hope that you are finding the transition a relatively painless one though I suspect that many of you, like me, are finding it remarkably exhausting as well.  It’s okay to be tired and a little overwhelmed.  Hopefully things are going to settle down for us all and we will forge ahead with a semester of good learning and good experiences at FLCC.

I’m pleased to announce that we will be continuing the Honors Talk Series this semester, with an added twist!  Since we are now back on campus, I’m happy to say that our talks can now be a mixture of in-person and virtual.  FLCC has these amazing classrooms that are fitted to serve students who are remote as well as ones sitting in the room so I think that is a perfect way for us to have these talks.  This allows you to choose each time; you can come to an actual room with the speakers and hang out with others (masked, of course!) or log in from the comfort of your car, home, or wherever else.  Either option will allow you to participate in any discussion, ask questions, and be present in real time.  So far, this is what we are working on...

• “Cultivating Curiosity” with Dr. Jonathan Keiser, Provost of FLCC
• “What I Did With My Liberal Arts Degree” with three FLCC alumni: Mandi Brown (’09), Jeff Dugan (’12), and Cheyenne Wilke (’15)
• "Exploring Science in Our World" with John Bateman, Assistant Professor in Conservation
• “Marketing and Selling Your Art” with Sara Jackson (’12)
• “Tales from the West Coast” with Riot Games narrative writer Ro Williams
• “Wooly to Wearable, the Joy of Sheep Keeping” with Lydia Garofalo (’21)
• "Cultural Competency and Cultural Humility" with Nasim Sarvaiya, Assistant Professor of Social Science
• "Inhumane Humanitarianism" with Jade Myers (’12)
• "Addiction and Navigating Sobriety" with Jenna Williams (’20)
• "Mental Wellness in a World that Doesn't Value It" with Laura Johnson, Bookstore Director at FLCC

I think this is an AMAZING list and I hope there is something on here that you find interesting.  We will have dates and descriptions coming soon, so keep your eyes open.

You may have also noticed, if you are enrolled in an FLCC Honors class this semester, that you are now getting emails from me.  I hope this will help us to communicate more smoothly.  We also have Facebook and I am in the process of setting up a Discord for Honors.  Let me know if you want to be part of this project.  Perhaps you even want to help resurrect the Honors Club at FLCC?  There are so many ways to get involved and I hope that you will find your place at FLCC and in FLCC Honors.